THE  BIBLE   AS 
>OD  READING 


c 

c 

c 

r 
C 
r 

e 

7 

• 
\ 

I 
» 

i 

i 

i 

i 
1 

1 

(£iattnre  (Bti^^ 


Digitized  by  tine  Internet  Archive 

in  2007  witli  funding  from 

IVIicrosoft  Corporation 


littp://www.arcliive.org/details/bibleasgoodreadiOObeveiala 


/THE  BIBLE  AS  GOOD 
READING 


BY  ' 

ALBERT  J;  BEVERIDGE 

United  States  Senator  from  Indiana 


Author  of 
"WORK  AND  HABITS" 


PHILADELPHIA 
HENRY    ALTEMUS     COMPANY 


Copyright  1907 

_   BY 

Howard  £.  Altbmu* 


THE  BIBLE  AS  GOOD  READING 


I.  In  the  Big  Woods. 

"I  wish  I  had  something  to  read,"  said  He. 

"Well,   what's  the  matter  with  the  maga- 
zines?" promptly  replied  the  Other  One. 

"I  have  read  them  all,"  He  immediately  ob- 
jected. 

."Why,  I  thought  you  didn't  want  to  read 
anything.  I  thought  you  said  this  was  to  be 
a  vacation  in  the  woods,  with  no  reading  or 
thought  or  anything  else,"  said  the  Other  One. 

"Well,  of  course,"  said  He;    "but  a  fellow 
has  got  to  have  something  to  read,  after  all," 

"Well,"  said  the  Other  One,  "let  me  read 
you  something  out  of  the  Bible." 

"The  Bible!"  said  He.     "Oh,  no!     I  want 
some  good  reading;  that's  what  I  want." 

7 


THE  BIBLE  AS  GOOD  READING 

They  were  in  camp  in  the  deep  woods,  many 
days'  canoe  trip  from  a  human  being.  They 
were  two  tired-out  men — wholly  tired  out  when 
they  started,  with  non-productive  brains,  and 
with  sore,  ragged  nerves,  from  their  year's 
hard  work.  They  were  none  the  less  worn 
out  that  it  had  been  a  year  of  successful  work 
— even  of  triumphant  work. 

So  they  said  when  they  started:  "Let's  get 
a  rest.  Let's  not  even  take  any  reading  ma- 
terial. Let's  obey  Emerson.  His  advice  to 
the  rest-seeker  in  his  Wood  Notes,  where  he 
says  to  leave  everything  behind:  'Enough  to 
thee  the  primal  mind.'  " 

And  so  they  did.  They  arranged  for  their 
guides  carefully  (and  you  who  go  to  the 
woods  look  well  to  that).  They  were  scrupu- 
lous to  the  last  degree  about  their  cook  (and 
you  who  go  to  the  woods  be  very  sure  about 
that).  They  were  particular  about  their  tents, 
almost  technical  about  food  and  sleeping  ac- 
commodations and  creature  comforts.  But 
reading  matter — none  of  it  for  them.     At  the 


IN  THE  BIG  WOODS 

last  minute,  obeying  the  impulse  of  the  civi- 
lized, they  brought  all  the  magazines  in  sight; 
and  one  of  them,  who  always  carried  a  Bible, 
had  it  with  him  on  this  occasion. 

So,  up  the  streams  and  over  the  lakes  they 
went,  and  at  last,  far  out  from  the  path  of 
even  canoe  voyagers,  on  the  shores  of  a  lake 
whose  name  is  Beauty,  and  in  the  depths  of  a 
forest  whose  name  is  Noble,  by  a  mossy  spring 
whose  name  is  Delight,  they  swung  their  axes 
and  built  their  camp.  Already  Nature  had  be- 
gun her  work.  They  slept  like  pieces  of  iron, 
with  this  difference  —  there  was  the  delicious 
consciousness  of  going  to  sleep  and  ecstasy  on 
awakening.  They  ate  with  the  appetite  of  the 
primal  man,  but  with  the  restraint  of  the  civi- 
lized one  when  out  in  the  wilderness.  They 
were  careful  to  get  up  from  their  meal  always 
a  little  hungry.  They  joyed  in  the  woods. 
The  flight  of  birds  was  a  thing  to  be  looked 
at  and  to  get  pleasure  from.  The  forests  had 
strange,  attractive  sounds.  The  occasional  sen- 
tences of  the  guides  were  full  of  wisdom. 

9 


THE  BIBLE  AS  GOOD  READING 

Instantly  Nature  began  her  work  on  the 
brain  cells.  These  men  had  planned  not  to 
think  at  all.  They  were  astonished  to  find  that 
they  thought  more  than  ever  and  more  sanely, 
more  calmly,  and  yet  with  a  good  deal  more 
vigor.  Every  suggestion  of  tree,  and  flower, 
and  cloud,  and  shadow  and  shine  was  fecund 
with  thought.  The  rain  induced  more  than 
sleep;  it  induced  a  curious  yet  a  delightful 
mental  life.  There  was  none  of  your  neurotic 
thoughts  which  come  of  overworked  nerves 
and  all  that  sort  of  thing. 

Of  course,  you  can't  keep  that  kind  of  men 
down  to  not  thinking  at  all.  Their  bodies, 
which  so  long  have  been  unused  and  mal- 
treated, demand  exercise — long  rambles  among 
the  trees  and  over  mountains;  canoe  trips 
where  every  stroke  generates  more  energy 
than  it  expends;  target  practice  with  pistol 
until  the  snuffing  of  a  candle  at  night  at 
twenty  yards,  three  times  out  of  five,  is  no 
extraordinary  feat.  Well,  then,  it  was  plain 
to  see  how  the  minds  of  these  men  demanded 

10 


IN  THE  BIG  WOODS 

exercise  just  as  the  body  did;  for  the  minds 
had  been  more  maltreated  and  neglected  than 
the  body. 

"So  I  want  something  to  read,"  said  He. 

"Well,  what's  the  matter  with  the  Bible?" 
said  the  Other  One. 

"Oh,"  said  He,  "I  don't  want  anything  dull. 
I  don't  want  to  be  preached  to.  I  feel  in  a 
religious  mood,  but  not  in  the  mood  for  a 
sermon." 

"Why,  man,"  said  the  Other  One,  "the  Bible 
has  more  good  reading  in  it  than  any  book 
I  know  of.  What  will  you  have — poetry, 
adventure,  politics,  maxims,  oratory.  For 
they  are  all  here."  And  he  produced  the 
Bible. 

Thus  occurred  the  first  Bible  reading  in  the 
woods.  After  it  was  over:  "Why,  I  never 
knew  that  was  in  the  Bible,"  said  He.  "Let's 
have  some  more  of  that  to-morrow." 

And  on  the  morrow  they  did  have  more  of 
it.  By  chance,  one  of  the  guides  was  near  and 
he  sat  down  and  listened.     The  next  day  all 

II 


THE  BIBLE  AS  GOOD  READING 

the  guides  were  there.  The  day  after,  the 
reading  was  delayed  and  Indian  Charley 
modestly  suggested:  "Isn't  it  about  time  to 
have  some  more  of  that  there  Bible?"  And 
more  of  it  they  had. 

This  continued  day  in  and  day  out  through 
the  long,  but  all  too  brief,  vacation  in  the 
woods — the  real  woods,  the  deep  woods,  the 
limitless  woods — none  of  your  parks  with  trees 
in  them. 

The  comments  of  the  guides  were  serious, 
keen,  full  of  human  interest.  It  was  no  trouble 
for  th«m  to  understand  Isaiah.  They  had  the 
same  spirit  that  inspired  David  when  he  went 
up  against  Goliath.  They  knew,  with  their 
deep,  elemental  natures,  the  kind  of  woman 
Ruth  was  and  Rebekah  was.  Moses  slaying 
the  Egyptian  and  leading  the  children  of  Israel 
out  of  Egypt,  laying  down  the  law  in  good, 
strict  man-fashion,  was  entirely  intelligible  to 
them.  One  wonders  what  the  "higher  critics" 
and  "scholarly  interpreters"  of  the  Holy  Scrip- 
tures would  have  thought  had  they  seen  these 
I? 


IN  THE  BIG  WOODS 

plain  men,  learned  in  the  wisdom  of  the  woods, 
understanding  quite  clearly  the  twelfth  chapter 
of  Romans,  or  the  voluptuous  Song  of  Sol- 
omon, or  the  war  song  of  Moses,  or,  most  of 
all,  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount. 

"Why,  I  never  knew  those  things  were  in 
the  Bible.  How  did  you  ever  get  on  to  them?" 
said  He  one  day,  when  a  perfectly  charming 
story  had  been  read. 

"Why,  this  way,"  said  the  Other  One. 
"Many  years  ago  in  a  logging  camp,  there  hap- 
pened to  be  nothing  to  read,  and  I  just  had  to 
read.  I  had  read  everything— that  is  to  say, 
I  had  read  everything  but  the  Bible.  And  I 
did  not  want  to  read  that.  I  had  read  it  over 
and  over  again  in  the  church  and  in  my  own 
home,  and  always  with  that  monotonous  non- 
intelligence,  that  utter  lack  of  human  under- 
standing that  makes  all  the  men  and  women  of 
the  Bible,  as  ordinarily  interpreted  to  us,  putty- 
like characters  without  any  human  attributes. 
But  there  was  nothing  else  to  read.  So  I  was 
forced  to  read  the  Bible,  and  I  instantly  be- 

13 


THE  BIBLE  AS  GOOD  READING 

came  fascinated  with  it.  I  discovered  what 
every  year  since  that  has  confirmed — that  there 
is  more  'good  reading'  in  the  Bible  than  in  all 
the  volumes  of  fiction,  poetry  and  philosophy 
put  together.  So  when  I  get  tired  of  every- 
thing else,  and  want  something  really  good  to 
read,  something  that  is  charged  full  of  energy 
and  human  emotions,  of  cunning  thought  and 
everything  that  arrests  the  attention  and  thrills 
or  soothes  or  uplifts  you,  according  to  your 
mood,  I  find  it  in  the  Bible." 

It  is  natural  enough,  is  it  not?  Surely  this 
book  has  not  held  its  sway  over  the  human 
mind  for  two  thousand  years  without  having 
engaging  qualities — something  that  appeals  to 
our  "human  interest."  Surely  the  Old  Testa- 
ment, which  is  a  story  of  the  most  masterful 
and  persistent  people  who  ever  lived,  a  peo- 
ple who  have  seen  nations  rise  and  fall,  dynas- 
ties grow  and  perish  like  mushrooms — I  mean 
the  Jews — surely  such  a  history  cannot  help 
being  charged  with  thought,  and  emotion,  and 
love,  and  hate,  and  plot,  and  plan,  with  frailty 
14 


IN  THE  BIG  WOODS 

and  ideality,  with  Cowardice  and  courage,  with 
anarchy  and  law,  with  waywardness  and  obedi- 
ence, with  the  flowing  of  milk  and  honey  on 
the  one  hand,  and  battle  "till  the  sun  stood 
still"  on  the  other  hand.  No,  surely,  such  a 
chronicle  could  not  help  overflowing  with 
everything  human. 

And  surely,  too,  the  New  Testament,  which 
is  the  account  of  the  Man  who  dominates  all 
Christendom  to-day,  the  Man  who  is  the  most 
powerful  influence  in  civilization  two  thou- 
sand years  after  He  has  passed  from  earth; 
surely  such  an  account  could  not  be  without  a 
fascination,  compared  with  which  our  most 
thrilling  novels  and  most  passionate  poems  are 
vapid  and  tame.  And,  of  course,  the  New 
Testament,  with  its  vivid  account  of  the  life- 
work  and  deeds,  with  the  Crucifixion,  Resurrec- 
tion and  Ascension  of  our  Ivord,  is  not  with- 
out these  elements.  And,  when  you  add  to 
these  merely  human  elements  of  the  Old  and 
New  Testaments  the  divine  quality  glori- 
fying it  all,  you  have  by  far  the  best  litera- 
ls 


THE  BIBLE  AS  GOOD  READING 

ture  in  the  world;  and  not  the  best  litera- 
ture only,  but  by  far  the  most  interesting 
literature. 

You  have  not  only  the  development  of  the 
only  divine  religion  known  to  man,  but  you 
have  easily  the  best  reading  to  be  found  in  all 
the  libraries.  It  is  of  the  Bible  from  this  last 
point  of  view  that  this  little  book  is  written. 
I  am  talking  now  to  those  who  are  asking  each 
night  about  their  firesides  for  "something  good 
to  read" ;  and  I  am  telling  them  to  read  the 
standard  novels,  and  more  than  the  standard 
novels — the  standard  histories  and  biographies ; 
and  more  than  the  standard  histories  and  biog- 
raphies— the  standard  poets;  and  more  than 
both  of  these,  the  current  magazines  and  all  of 
them,  for  they  are  the  living  expression  of  the 
world's  thought  to-day;  but  I  am  telling  that, 
more  than  all  of  these  put  together,  they  will 
find  "good  reading"  considered  from  the  view- 
point of  "good  reading"  and  nothing  else,  be- 
tween the  covers  of  that  volume  which  every 
home  would  be  ashamed  to  be  without,  but 
i6 


IN  THE  BIG  WOODS 

which,  curiously  enough,  is  the  last  one  to  be 
read. 

Or  is  it  curiously  enough?  Is  not  the  neg- 
lect of  the  Bible  as  mere  literature  due  to  the 
intellectual  indigestion  acquired  early  in  youth 
as  to  this  particular  book  by  the  unintelligent 
way  in  which  it  is  read  at  the  fireside  and  from 
the  pulpit?  I  say  unintelligent,  merely  be- 
cause, to  our  young  men  and  young  women, 
when  they  are  boys  and  girls,  nothing  but  text 
and  precept  and  maxims  are  read,  and  these 
are  declaimed  with  an  offensive  solemnity  that 
defeats  its  very  purpose. 

But  take  the  Bible  up  as  an  account  of 
mighty  men  and  extraordinary  women  and 
the  most  wonderful  of  people;  take  it  up  as 
a  purely  "human  document"  (you  will  get 
the  religion  in  it  as  you  go  along),  and  know 
how  fascinating  it  is.  I  wish  space  permitted 
a  chapter  upon  the  Bible  as  "good  reading" 
under  each  of  the  following  titles: 

The  Bible  and  Adventure,  The  Bible  and 
Art,  The  Bible  and  Politics,  The  Bible  and 

H—G.  R.  17 


THE  BIBLE  AS  GOOD  READING 

Statesmanship,    The   Bible  and    Poetry,    The 
Bible  and  Oratory. 

Having  got  all  these  you  would  not  fail  to 
get  what  all  of  them  combined  tell :  The  Bible 
and  Religion.  But  let  us  take  up  some  illus- 
trations of  each  of  these  in  another  chapter. 


18 


II.  Old  Testament  Short  Stories  :  David. 

First  of  all,  the  Bible  is  by  far  the  most 
admirable  compendium  of  the  best  short  stories 
to  be  found  in  the  literature  of  the  world.  For- 
getting this,  the  consensus  of  modern  literary 
criticism  is  that  the  French  are  the  best  tellers 
of  short  stories.  And  yet  the  French  short 
stories — ^perfect  as  they  are  when  compared 
with  other  fiction — are  crude  and  prolix  com- 
pared with  the  short  stories  of  the  Bible,  which, 
after  all,  are  not  stories,  but  the  plain  telling 
of  actual  human  occurrences.  They  are  of 
every  kind  too.  Suppose,  for  example,  you 
want  to  read  a  story  of  adventure — one  that 
will  make  your  blood  jump  and  yet  uplift 
you. 

Very  well;  turn  to  the  seventeenth  chapter 
of  First  Samuel,  and  read  how  the  golden- 
haired,   ruddy-cheeked,   blue-eyed  young  He- 

19 


THE  BIBLE  AS  GOOD  READING 

brew  called  David  came  from  the  shepherding 
of  his  father's  flocks,  bringing  food  for  his 
brothers,  who  were  soldiers  in  the  Israelitish 
army  encamped  on  the  side  of  a  mountain. 
On  the  opposite  side  of  the  valley  was  the 
army  of  the  Philistines. 

Those  were  tremendous  days  for  fighting. 
Men  slew  men  with  primitive  ferocity.  It 
was  the  time  of  that  rude  chivalry  where  a 
single  combatant  from  one  camp  would  chal- 
lenge the  other  camp  to  produce  an  antagonist, 
and  settle  the  whole  affray  in  a  single-handed 
fight.  We  read  of  the  same  custom  in  early 
Roman  history.  It  reappeared  in  the  medieval 
times.  Indeed,  in  one  form  or  another,  it 
has  always  been  here  and  always  will  be 
here. 

The  Philistines  had  a  fighter  who  had  never 
found  his  match,  and  the  terror  of  his  fame 
was  upon  the  land.  He  was  a  tremendously 
big  man  physically,  and  unlike  most  physical 
giants  his  nerve  was  as  fine  and  as  tense  as 
his  body  was  great  (for,  to  digress,  most  phys- 


DAVID 

ically  big  men  are  nervously  inferior).  And 
this  Philistine  man  of  might  was  as  brave 
as  he  was  tall.  Also  he  was  as  hard  as 
nails. 

There  wasn't  anybody  in  all  Israel  who  dared 
"go  up  against"  him.  'And  that  was  saying  a 
good  deal;  for  the  ancient  Hebrews  were  per- 
haps the  best  fighting  men  the  world  has  yet 
produced.  They  were  as  daring  as  courage 
itself.  They  were  schooled  in  combat.  They 
always  believed  that  they  were  fighting  under 
the  command  of  the  Most  High,  and  the  strict 
obedience  required  of  them  to  the  amazing 
and  minute  laws  of  health  laid  down  by  Moses 
made  them  altogether,  in  muscle,  nerve  and 
brain,  unsurpassed  as  warriors  by  any  men  of 
any  time,  unless  we  may  except  the  Japanese 
Samurai. 

And  yet,  when  the  Philistine  champion  came 
out  before  the  army  of  Israel  and  cried,  "I 
defy  the  armies  of  Israel  this  day;  give  me  a 
man,  that  we  may  fight  together,"  Saul  and 
all  Israel  "were  dismayed,  and  greatly  afraid." 

21 


THE  BIBLE  AS  GOOD  READING 

And  day  after  day,  while  the  opposing  armies 
rested,  this  defiance  was  renewed. 

Pretty  soon,  of  course,  this  had  its  effect. 
The  Hebrews  began  to  lose  heart.  They  be- 
gan to  "lose  their  nerve,"  as  the  saying  is. 
Worse  than  this,  they  were  humiliated.  They 
began  to  be  ashamed.  And  when  you  have  at 
once  humiliated  a  man,  and  also  scared  him 
to  death,  he  is  the  most  pitiable  of  spec- 
tacles. Take  it  all  together,  it  was  a  heart- 
rending situation  when  the  blond  young  musi- 
cian (David  had  yellow  hair  and  blue  eyes 
and  a  "peaches-and-cream"  complexion,  you 
know)  arrived  in  the  camp  with  some  bread 
for  his  brothers.  For  you  must  remember 
that  David  played  on  the  harp  and  sang  well; 
so  far  as  that  is  concerned,  he  did  nearly  every- 
thing well.  I  have  often  thought  that  Emerson 
must  have  had  him  in  mind  in  his  wonderful 
lines  on  Character  when  he  says : 

His  tongue  was   framed  to  music, 
His  hand  was  armed  with  skill, 

His  face  was  the  mold  of  beauty 
And  his  heart  was  the  throne  of  will. 

23 


DAVID 

When  David  arrived  he  saw  the  fearful- 
ness  of  Goliath;  his  blood  turned  to  fire,  and 
he  shouted  out,  "Who  is  this  uncircumcised 
Philistine  that  he  should  defy  the  armies  of 
the  living  God?"  And  the  soldiers  told  him 
all  about  it;  and  then  the  blue-eyed  shepherd 
boy  went  to  Saul  and  told  him  that  he  would 
be  the  Hebrew  champion. 

Of  course,  Saul  said,  "Thou  art  not  able  to 
go  against  this  Philistine  to  fight  with  him: 
for  thou  art  but  a  youth,  and  he  a  man  of 
war  from  his  youth." 

Then  David  made  the  argument  that  heroes 
have  made  in  different  words  from  the  foun- 
dation of  the  world.  There  was  a  courage  in 
his  heart  all  his  own,  and  faith  in  his  soul 
from  on  high.  He  was  another  of  the  type 
of  Joan  of  Arc  or  of  Nelson  or  of  our  own 
Lawrence. 

They  put  armor  upon  him,  but  he  could  not 
move  in  it.  He  wasn't  used  to  it,  so  he  put  it 
off  of  him;  he  took  instead  his  staff  in  his 
hand  and  chose  five  smooth  stones  out  of  the 

23 


THE  BIBLE  AS  GOOD  READING 

brook,  and  put  them  in  his  shepherd's  bag,  and 
his  sHng  was  in  his  hand  and  he  drew  near  to 
the  PhiHstine.  When  GoHath  saw  David,  he 
was  furious  with  insult,  and  roared  out  the 
denunciation  that  you  might  expect,  telhng 
David  what  he  would  do  to  him,  and  what,  by 
all  the  rules  of  the  game,  it  was  apparently 
certain  he  would  do  to  him.  David's  answer 
was  as  noble  as  his  courage: 

Then  said  David  to  the  Philistine,  Thou  comest 
to  me  with  a  sword,  and  with  a  spear,  and  with  a 
shield :  but  I  come  to  thee  in  the  name  of  the  Lord 
of  hosts,  the  God  of  the  armies  of  Israel,  whom  thou 
hast  defied. 

This  day  will  the  Lord  deliver  thee  into  mine  hand; 
and  I  will  smite  thee,  and  take  thine  head  from  thee; 
and  I  will  give  the  carcases  of  the  host  of  the  Phil- 
istines this  day  unto  the  fowls  of  the  air,  and  to  the 
wild  beasts  of  the  earth;  that  all  the  earth  may  know 
that  there  is  a  God  in  Israel. 

And  all  this  assembly  shall  know  that  the  Lord 
saveth  not  with  sword  and  spear:  for  the  battle  is  the 
Lord's,  and  he  will  give  you  into  our  hands. 

There  spoke  the  voice  of  the  soul  of  the 
Hebrew  people.     There  was  a  defiance  that 

24 


DAVID 

answered  Goliath's  own  and  overwhelmed  it. 
Also,  it  dazed  the  mighty  Philistine  warrior. 
What!  a  mere  boy  say  this  to  him!  It  was 
astounding- — more,  it  was  absurd!  And  still 
more,  it  was  insulting!  And  then  the  fight 
took  place.  The  world  has  not  yet  forgot- 
ten this  immortal  combat.  And  for  "good 
reading"  in  the  realm  of  adventure  noth- 
ing has  been  produced  that  comes  anywhere 
near  it. 

I  have  not  been  long  in  telling  this.  And 
yet,  condensing  it  all  I  can,  I  have  been  a  good 
deal  longer  than  the  Bible  is  in  relating  this 
story.  And  I  have  left  out  a  good  deal,  at 
that.  That  is  one  characteristic  of  everything 
that  is  written  in  the  Bible.  It  is  condensed. 
It  fairly  snaps  and  sizzles  with  condensation. 
It  is  full  of  action,  and  although  it  reports  con- 
versations, gives  the  arguments  that  are  used 
pro  and  con,  describes  incidents,  it  is  all  done  so 
quickly  and  naturally  and  to  the  point  that 
you  can  read  it  in  five  minutes. 

To  the  stories  of  David  alone  I  might  de- 

25 


THE  BIBLE  AS  GOOD  READING 

vote  as  much  space  as  this  vohime  contains; 
for  of  him  the  Scriptures  tell  us  more  "good 
stories"  than  of  any  other  man  (with  the  pos- 
sible exception  of  Joseph),  mentioned  in  the 
whole  Bible.  No  hero  of  any  age  was  more 
versatile;  the  great  Leonardo  himself  was  not 
so  many-sided. 

Already  we  have  seen  this  golden-haired  lad 
— a  "mere  boy"  minding  or  tending  his  father's 
flocks,  wrestling  with  lion,  bear,  finally  killing 
the  veteran  and  giant  champion,  in  single  com- 
bat. Later  we  shall  find  him  at  the  court  of 
King  Saul,  harp  before  him,  charming  away 
his  master's  blues  and  making  friends  right  and 
left.  To  know  David  was  to  love  him;  and 
it  was  this  very  popularity  that  was  so  nearly 
his  undoing.  You  remember  how  Saul,  over 
come  by  jealousy,  time,  time  and  again,  by  fair 
means  or  foul,  sought  to  slay  his  young  lieu- 
tenant; and  how  David,  each  time  he  had 
Saul  in  his  power,  stayed  his  hand  and  spared 
the  life  of  his  most  treacherous  and  relentless 
enemy. 
26 


DAVID 

Loyalty  and  generosity  were  dominant  traits 
of  David's  character.  Read  the  First  Book  of 
Samuel  and  you  will  find  them  illustrated  an 
hundred  times.  You  will  find,  too,  that  this 
is  a  story  of  such  absorbing,  rugged  interest  as 
to  make  the  adventure  novel  of  the  year  seem 
but  the  tawdriest  of  pinchbeck.  David,  you 
must  remember,  was  one  of  your  restless  fel- 
lows, one  of  those  human  dynamos  all  a-crackle 
with  energy ;  a  reformer,  fighting  man,  righter 
of  wrongs,  poet  and  politician — in  a  word,  a 
born  leader  of  men.  He  was,  to  be  sure,  the 
Lord's  Anointed,  and  had  a  divine  destiny 
before  him;  but  leaving  that  out  of  the  ques- 
tion, we  know  that  he  was  one  of  the  best  all- 
round  men  of  his  day  and  generation — and  the 
Lord  as  well  as  the  world  is  always  looking  for 
just  that  kind  of  men.  His  training,  tempera- 
ment and  abilities  irresistibly  drew  him  into  the 
military  or  public  life  of  camp  and  court  which 
gave  him  that  stern  schooling  that  was  to  make 
him  the  master  of  the  Chosen  People.  Like 
all  great  men,  he  had  his  ups  and  downs.     In 

27 


THE  BIBLE  AS  GOOD  READING 

his  youth,  at  his  monarch's  royal  board,  with  a 
score  of  vaUant  deeds  to  his  credit,  we  find 
him  feted  and  courted  on  every  hand.  Only  a 
few  years  later  we  see  him  in  the  Cave  of  Adul- 
1am,  leader  of  a  ragged  band  of  poor  debtors 
and  malcontents.  A  sorry  crew  those  four 
hundred  bankrupts  and  ne'er-do-wells;  but 
David,  mind  you,  was  their  leader!  And  so 
we  follow  him  step  by  step  until  he  comes  into 
his  own  and  reigns  in  Jerusalem — and  some 
mighty  "good  reading"  we  have  had  by  the 
way! 

Big  men  make  big  mistakes.  If  they  are 
good  men  they  survive  them.  Peter  thrice 
denied  his  Lord  and  lived  his  cowardice  down ; 
another  once  betrayed  Him  and  made  the  name 
of  Judas  a  hissing  for  the  ages.  Even  David's 
life  had  its  blacker  pages;  and  yet  he  was  "a 
man  after  God's  own  heart."  If  you  would 
see  him  at  his  best  and  at  his  worst  (and  give 
yourself  up  to  the  charm  of  one  of  the  most 
moving  tales  in  all  literature),  read  the  story 
of  Uriah  the  Hittite  and  his  Little  Ewe  Lamb. 
28 


DAVID 

Turn  to  the  Second  Book  of  Samuel  and  read 
in  the  eleventh  and  twelfth  chapters  that  won- 
derful recital  of  unlawful  love,  black  treach- 
ery, swift  punishment  and  bitter  remorse. 
What  could  be  more  exquisite  than  Nathan's 
simple  and  moving  parable  in  which  the  young 
wife  the  king  has  stolen  becomes  the  poor 
man's  Little  Ewe  Lamb  snatched  away  and 
butchered  by  his  wealthy  neighbor?  How  can 
one  better  employ  a  quarter  of  an  hour  than 
in   reading  this   little  masterpiece? 

Is  it  surprising  that  David's  vast  and  varied 
knowledge  of  men  should  come  to  full  flower 
in  the  wisdom  of  his  son  Solomon?  A  thou- 
sand years  hence,  our  descendants  will  still  be 
marveling  over  the  dozen  verses  (I  Kings 
3:16-28)  that  chronicle  Solomon's  judgment 
between  the  two  mothers.  Cite,  if  you  can, 
a  single  instance  in  modern  literature  that 
shows  keener  or  wiser  perception  of  the  funda- 
mentals of  human  nature! 


a9 


III.  Old  Testament  Short  Stories  :  Love, 
Courtship  and  Intrigue. 

The  earlier  books  of  the  Bible  afford  as 
many  entertaining  stories  as  the  ones  we  have 
just  been  discussing.  And  they  are  not  only 
entertaining,  but  they  are  crammed  full  of  real 
life,  of  knowledge  of  men,  of  old  world 
shrewdness.  Of  late  years  there  has  been  a 
furor  for  nature  books;  but  which  of  them 
displays  closer  observation  than  Jacob  showed 
when  he  tended  Laban's  flocks  and  by  an 
absurdly  simple  device  trebled  his  wage  of 
ring-straked  cattle?  A  dozen  or  fifteen  verses 
in  the  thirtieth  chapter  of  Genesis  tell  the 
whole  story.  Turn  back  a  few  pages  and  you 
find  the  tale  of  Jacob  and  Esau  and  the  story 
of  Abraham  and  Isaac — a  story  of  pathos 
(albeit  with  a  "pleasant  ending")  that  rouses 
the  dullest  man's  sympathies.     If  you  would 

31 


THE  BIBLE  AS  GOOD  READING 

still  have  more  short  stories,  read  of  Elijah  and 
Elisha;  of  young  Samson,  his  riddle  and  his 
Delilah.  If  you  would  know  the  horrors  of 
a  beleaguered  city,  turn  to  the  last  ten  verses 
of  the  sixth  chapter  of  the  Second  Book  of 
Kings.  Daniel  furnishes  an  almost  unbroken 
series  of  readable  adventures;  and  Jonah  (in 
the  fourth  chapter)  an  extraordinary  insight 
into  human  nature  and  a  lesson  of  sublime 
beauty. 

Let  me  impress  upon  you  that  in  every 
Bible  story  there  is  always  "something 
doing."  Let  us  take,  for  example,  two  flash- 
lights that  illustrate  this,  and  from  a  beau- 
tiful point  of  view.  I  have  often  thought 
that  were  I  a  painter  I  would  paint  at 
least  two  pictures,  if  I  never  painted  any 
others. 

The  first  of  these  is  the  picture  of  the  first 
gentleman  described  in  all  the  literature  of  the 
world.  Abraham,  growing  old,  considered 
that  the  time  had  come  -yvhen  his  son  Isaac 
should  have  a  wife.  There  were  many  beauti- 
3a 


LOVE,  COURTSHIP  AND  INTRIGUE 

ful  young  women  in  the  land,  any  one  of 
whom  would  have  made  an  excellent  wife  for 
Abraham's  son.  But  with  that  deep  wisdom 
which  never  fails  to  bear  the  fruit  of  happi- 
ness and  well-being,  he  said  that  Isaac  must 
have  a  wife  from  among  his  own  people.  So 
he  sent  his  most  trusted  servant  with  camels 
and  presents  to  go  into  the  land  where  peo- 
ple of  his  own  race  dwelt  and  there  search 
out  a  wife,  Abraham  giving  to  this  trusted 
servant  definite  instructions. 

After  a  time  the  servant  and  his  train  of 
camels  came  to  the  city  of  Nahor,  and  the 
servant  made  up  his  mind  that  the  way  he 
would  decide  among  the  damsels  that  came 
down  to-  the  well  for  water  (for  it  was  the 
custom  of  all  the  young  women  to  come  down 
to  the  well  of  the  community  and  take  water 
in  a  pitcher  for  the  family)  would  be  thus : 
the  one,  who,  when  he  asked  of  her  a  drink 
of  water  should  not  only  give  him  a  drink,  but 
also  say,  "I  will  give  thy  camels  drink  also," 
was  the  fit  mate  for  his  master's  son. 

8—G.  X.  33 


THE  BIBLE  AS  GOOD  READING 

So,  among  others,  down  came  Rebekah  to 
the  well;  and  he  asked  her  for  a  drink  of 
water  from  her  pitcher.  Whereupon  she 
said,  "Drink."  .  .  .  And  the  Bible  proceeds  to 
say  that,  when  she  had  done  giving  him 
drink,  she  said,  "I  will  draw  water  for  thy 
camels  also."  She  was  the  real  woman,  you 
see;  one  who  thought  it  a  fine  thing  to  be 
gracious. 

Then  follows  the  story  of  the  strange  court- 
ship by  proxy,  after  the  Oriental  custom. 
Rebekah  is  described  as  very  beautiful.  The 
end  of  this  part  of  the  story  is  that,  consent- 
ing herself  and  with  the  consent  of  all  her 
family,  she  went  with  Abraham's  servant  to 
meet  her  future  husband. 

About  the  time  when  they  might  be  expected 
to  return,  Isaac  went  out  into  the  field  to 
meditate  at  eventide.  We  can  see  him — can 
we  not? — as  the  purple  evening  fell  and  night 
come  on,  tall  and  slender  and  full  of  that 
vigor  which  was  to  father  a  race,  walking 
in  the  field  thinking,  and  thinking — think- 
34 


LOVE,  COURTSHIP  AND  INTRIGUE 

ing  of  his  future  and  of  his  destiny,  and 
most  of  all  of  her  who  was  coming  and 
who  would  make  all  worth  while  and  glorify 
his  life. 

And  then,  goes  on  the  story  in  the  words 
of  the  Bible,  "he  lifted  up  his  eyes,  and  saw, 
and,  behold,  the  camels  were  coming."  And 
when  the  camels  bearing  his  bride  had  ar-- 
rived,  Rebekah  lighted  down  from  the  camel, 
and  then  occurs  this  exquisite  picture — the  pic- 
ture of  the  first  gentleman  in  literature.  He 
"brought  her  into  his  mother  Sarah's  tent." 
And  so  ends  this  tender  and  beautiful  tale  of 
delicacy  and  refinement,  of  chivalry  and  man- 
ner, which  made  up  the  character  of  this  first 
of  that  race  of  men  whom  the  world  has  al- 
ways loved  and  will  always  love — the  race  of 
gentlemen. 

Beautiful  manners,  courtly  behavior  and  the 
unselfishness  that  underlies  all  true  nobility,  are 
constantly  found  in  the  characters  of  the  Bible, 
If  you  would  like  to  rest  yourself  with  a  tender 
story  of  fidelity,  read  the  Book  of  Ruth.    Con- 

35 


THE  BIBLE  AS  GOOD  READING 

sidered  merely  as  "good  reading,"  it  is  easily 
the  best  short  story  ever  written.  But  it  is 
better  than  that — it  tells  the  tale  of  the  most 
loyal  unselfishness  of  which  there  is  any  rec- 
ord. It  is  proverbial  that  no  man  nor  woman 
can  get  along  with  his  or  her  mother-in- 
law;  but  it  is  a  modern  proverb.  The  men 
and  women  of  the  Bible  found  no  difficulty  of 
that  kind,  and  of  this,  Ruth  is  the  best  illus- 
tration. 

When  Ruth's  husband  died,  his  mother, 
Naomi,  who  was  a  very  poor  woman,  told  her 
daughter-in-law  that  it  would  not  be  fair  to 
waste  her  beauty  and  youth  remaining  with  a 
poverty-stricken  old  woman  and  that  it  would 
be  best  for  her  to  go  back  to  her  own  people 
where  she  could  take  up  the  broken  thread  of 
her  life.  Ruth  would  not  do  it.  Orpah,  an- 
other widowed  daughter-in-law  of  Naomi, 
took  the  old  lady's  advice,  but  Ruth  was  stead- 
fast, and  uttered  these  words — words  so  ex- 
quisite, pure  and  exalted,  that  to  this  day  they 
uplift  us.  Said  Ruth : 
36 


LOVE,  COURTSHIP  AND  INTRIGUE 

Intreat  me  not  to  leave  thee,  or  to.  return  from  fol- 
lowing after  thee :  for  whither  thou  goest,  I  will  go ; 
and  where  thou  lodgest,  I  will  lodge :  thy  people  shall 
be  my  people,  and  thy  God  my  God : 

Where  thou  diest,  will  I  die,  and  there  will  I  be 
buried. 

These  words  were  to  an  aged  and  poverty- 
stricken  mother-in-law,  mind  you,  and  were 
uttered  by  the  loveliest  of  red-lipped  maidens 
with  all  her  life  before  her. 

It  is  hard  to  imagine  what  would  have  hap- 
pened to  the  forlorn  old  woman  if  her  daughter- 
in-law  had  not  been  so  "stedfastly  minded," 
as  the  Bible  puts  it,  for  it  was  Ruth  who  pro- 
vided her  with  the  necessaries  of  life  by  glean- 
ing in  the  fields  of  Boaz.  This  Boaz  was  a 
fine  man.  I  wish  every  rich  man  might  study 
his  character.  He  followed  the  ancient  law  of 
Moses  which  commanded  the  owners  of  fields 
and  vineyards  to  leave  something  on  their 
vines,  trees,  and  grain  fields  for  the  poor  to 
gather  up. 

So  when  Ruth  went  into  his  fields  to  glean 
with  the  other  maidens,  Boaz  observed  that  she 

37 


THE  BIBLE  AS  GOOD  READING 

was  a  stranger,  modest,  industrious  and  at- 
tractive; and  he  commanded  the  young  men 
who  were  harvesting  not  to  molest  her  and 
ordered  his  overseer  to  take  care  that  not  only 
the  gleanings  but  an  occasional  sheaf  was  left 
for  her  to  gather  up.  It  was  by  gathering  up 
this  grain  left  for  her,  that  Ruth  was  able  to 
provide  her  aged  mother-in-law  with  food  and 
keep  her  alive. 

Strenuous  or  gentle,  the  women  of  the  Bible 
are  always  "doing  things."  There  is  not  a  lazy 
woman  in  all  the  Scriptures — no  dolce  far 
niente  creatures,  no  relaxed  and  languorous 
idlers.  If  they  were  kindly  and  comforting  at 
heart  they  showed  it  by  doing  kindly  and  com- 
forting things  all  the  time,  as  was  the  case  with 
Ruth,  or  Hannah,  or  Rebekah.  If  they  were 
of  strong  spirit  they  were  always  counseling, 
leading  and  inspiring.  Deborah  and  Esther 
were  types  of  the  patriotic  woman.  If  you 
would  like  some  good  reading  where  hatred, 
vanity,  revenge  and  judgment  are  written  with 
the  pen  of  power,  read  about  this  Esther. 
38 


LOVE,  COURTSHIP  AND  INTRIGUE 

When  by  her  remarkable  charm  and  beauty 
and  "drawing"  personality,  Esther  had  become 
queen,  she  appears  to  have  had  the  one  pur- 
pose in  life  of  pleasing  and  caring  for  her 
lord,  the  king — a  very  trivial  purpose,  no  doubt, 
but  still  the  purpose  for  which  God  made  man 
man  and  woman  woman ;  the  one  to  protect  and 
provide — the  other  to  comfort  and  soothe. 

Everything  would  probably  have  gone  along 
well  if  Haman,  the  king's  right-hand  man, 
had  not  plotted  against  Mordecai,  Esther's 
uncle.  The  reason  why  Haman  was  so  "down 
on"  Mordecai  was  because  the  proud  old  man, 
Jew  though  he  was,  would  never  bow  or  un- 
cover to  him.  In  revenge,  Haman  conspired 
to  have  Mordecai  hanged ;  and  hatched  an  anti- 
Semitic  plot  for  the  total  extermination  of  the 
Jews.  Just  at  that  point  Esther  appeared  as 
the  figure  of  destiny,  and  at  the  risk  of  her 
own  life  saved  her  people,  turned  the  tables  on 
Haman  and  won  promotion  and  honor  for  her 
kinsman. 

A  good  way  to  test  the  tremendous  pith  and 

39 


THE  BIBLE  AS  GOOD  READING 

point  of  the  Bible  narrative  is  to  read  over  a 
portion  of  it,  get  it  thoroughly  in  mind;  then 
close  the  Bible  and  try  to  write  out  yourself 
the  very  things  you  have  just  read.  You  will 
find  that  you  will  use  two  or  three  times  as 
many  words  as  the  Bible  does,  do  the  best 
you  can. 

Of  course,  stories  of  adventure  are  very 
numerous  in  the  Bible — the  volume  is  packed 
full  of  them. 

But  suppose  you  want  some  other  kind  of 
story — intrigue,  let  us  say,  or  diplomacy.  You 
will  find  it  all  in  the  history  of  David.  His 
craft  in  statesmanship  equaled  his  courage  in 
war.  It  is  fascinating  to  see  how  he  laid  the 
foundation  of  that  dynasty  from  which  sprang 
our  Saviour. 

If  you  want  "human-interest"  stories  that 
yet  involve  statesmanship,  diplomacy  and  war 
you  will  find  them  all  crowded  into  the  life  of 
David.  And  through  them  all  you  will  find 
fundamental,  almost  primal,  human  passions 
running  at  high  tide. 
40 


LOVE,  COURTSHIP  AND  INTRIGUE 

For  example,  David  loved  women — man- 
fashion  and  violently  he  loved  them — and 
that  led  him,  man  of  God  though  he  was,  into 
wrongdoing.  And  the  hatred  of  the  people 
of  that  time  was  equal  to  their  love,  and  their 
grief  was  something  terrible.  When  the  men 
of  that  time  and  race  hated,  that  meant  a  kill- 
ing. We  see  it  in  the  same  race  as  late  as 
the  time  of  the  play  of  the  Merchant  of  Venice, 
where  that  wonderful  old  character,  Shylock, 
exclaims,  "Hates  any  man  the  thing  he  would 
not  kill?" 

While  David  is  the  master  character  through- 
out all  his  period,  and,  indeed,  one  of  the 
master  characters  of  all  time  and  of  all  peo- 
ples, that  period  was  full  of  characters.  The 
fact  is  that  the  Bible  is  made  up  of  big  char- 
acters, men  and  women  and  children,  loving, 
plotting,  warring,  hating,  intriguing,  philoso- 
phizing, praying,  forgiving,  doing  justice  and 
working  righteousness,  yet  falling  to  the  low- 
est depths. 

Stories  of  adventure  never  lose  their  fascina- 

41 


THE  BIBLE  AS  GOOD  READING 

tion,  Indeed,  Mr.  Rider  Haggard,  in  a 
thoughtful  essay  says  that  there  is  an  increas- 
ing love  for  tales  of  this  kind,  and  explains  it 
upon  the  ground  that  it  is  a  reaction  against 
our  neurotically  complex  civilization.  The 
Bible  is  full  of  these  narratives.  As  I  have 
pointed  out,  there  is  not  a  Hebrew  to-day  who 
does  not  glory  in  the  craft,  courage  and  in- 
spiration of  Gideon.  Who  can  forget  the  ex- 
altation of  Disraeli,  that  greatest  of  English 
statesmen,  who,  when  speaking  of  the  princes 
of  Israel,  always  named  Gideon  ?  The  famous 
night  attack  of  this  Hebrew  captain  has  al- 
ways reminded  me  of  Washington's  night  pas- 
sage of  the  Delaware  and  his  thunderbolt  as- 
sault on  the  Hessians  at  Trenton.  The  Israel- 
ites had  fallen  into  bad  straits.  "And  the 
children  of  Israel  did  evil  in  the  sight  of  the 
Lord :  and  the  Lord  delivered  them  into  the 
hand  of  Midian  seven  years." 

And  the  Midianites  "didn't  do  a  thing"  to 
the  Jews.  They  "destroyed  the  increase  of  the 
earth,  till  thou  come  unto  Gaza,  and  left  no 
42 


LOVE,  COURTSHIP  AND  INTRIGUE 

sustenance  for  Israel,  neither  sheep,  nor  ox, 
nor  ass." 

In  that  black  hour  a  leader  arose  for  the 
oppressed  people,  just  as  leaders  for  the  masses 
always  rise  when  their  situation  becomes  des- 
perate. It  is  true  that  the  Bible  says  that  God 
sent  His  angel  to  Gideon;  but  for  myself  I 
believe  that  all  great  leaders  of  the  people  al- 
ways have  been  and  always  will  be  directly  in- 
spired from  on  high,  I  find  no  difference  be- 
tween the  divine  guidance  of  Moses  and  a  like 
direction  of  Washington  and  Lincoln. 

It  is  picturesquely  characteristic  that  the 
angel  found  Gideon  threshing  his  wheat  by 
the  winepress  to  hide  it  from  the  Midianites. 
Nearly  all  the  great  leaders  of  the  people  are 
found  thus  in  the  common  occupations  when 
they  are  called  to  lead  the  people.  So  with 
Jackson  and  with  Cromwell  and  with  Joan  of 
Arc;  and  the  mighty  Peter  threw  aside  the 
barbaric  pomp  and  luxury  of  a  Czar  to  work 
as  a  humble  laborer  in  a  common  shipyard  of 
Holland.     Gideon  himself  says:    "My  family 

43 


THE  BIBLE  AS  GOOD  READING 

is  poor  in  Manasseh,  and  I  am  the  least  in  my 
father's  house." 

Nevertheless,  the  angel  hailed  him,  "Thou 
mighty  man  of  valor!"  for  he  saw  quite 
through  the  externals  into  the  soul  of  the  man. 
It  is  a  curious  thing  how  the  mysterious  quahty 
of  daring  is  almost  impossible  of  discovery 
until  occasion  develops  it.  The  quiet  man  may 
have  it  and,  <m  the  contrary,  the  most  ostenta- 
tious and  vainglorious  man  may  have  it;  as 
witness  Major  Burnham,  the  famous  Ameri- 
can scout,  who,  so  far  as  deeds  prove  anything, 
is  the  most  daring  man  alive  to-day.  On  the 
other  hand,  consider  Murat,  Napoleon's  famous 
marshal,  who  was  vainglorious  to  a  ludicrous 
point,  but  who  was  as  brave  as  he  was 'vain- 
glorious. 

Gideon  was  a  good  deal  of  a  doubter.  He 
could  not  make  out  how  he,  with  the  poor  ma- 
terial he  had  among  the  deteriorated  Hebrews, 
could  prevail  over  the  well-equipped  Midian- 
ites.  And  he  asks  miracles  to  prove  it ;  and  so 
you  will  remember  that  the  dew  fell  only  on 

44 


LOVE,  COURTSHIP  AND  INTRIGUE 

the  fleece  and  none  on  the  floor  around  it  which 
was  dry.  Even  that  did  not  satisfy  him,  and 
he  reversed  the  process,  •  and  the  dew  fell  on 
the  floor  and  none  on  the  fleece.  He  was  con- 
vinced at  last,  and  gathered  the  Israelites  about 
him.  But  they  were  too-  many,  and  everybody 
that  was  afraid  was  sent  back.  That  test  lost 
Gideon  twenty-two  thousand  soldiers  and  rid 
him  of  twenty-two  thousand  cowards.  Ten 
thousand  remained.  But  Gideon  needed  tem- 
pered steel  for  this  enterprise ;  he  couldn't  take 
anybody  with  him  who  was  too  nice,  on  the 
one  hand,  or  too  slovenly,  on  the  other  hand. 
So  he  took  them  down  to  the  water  to  drink. 
Those  that  bent  down  on  their  hands  and  knees 
he  excused,  and  those  that  lapped  water  with 
their  tongues  like  a  dog  he  took.  That  gave 
him  three  hundred  men.  "The  Midianites  and 
the  Amalekites  and  all  the  children  of  the  east 
lay  along  in  the  valley  .  .  .  ;  and  their  camels 
were  without  number,  as  the  sand  by  the  sea 
side  for  multitude." 

But  they  were  picked  men  that  Gideon  had. 

46 


THE  BIBLE  AS  GOOD  READING 

All  the  chaff  was  winnowed  out  from  among 
them.  It  was  the  same  situation  when  a  hand- 
ful of  high-grade  Greeks  utterly  overthrew 
the  enormous  hosts  of  the  Persians.  It  was 
the  same  situation  that  all  men  find  every- 
where. Do  we  not  see  it  in  politics,  where  a 
small  band  of  pure,  true,  brave  men  can  put 
to  utter  rout  an  immense  number  of  baser 
quality  ? 

Then  came  the  strategy  of  the  blowing  of 
the  trumpets  and  the  breaking  pitchers  and  the 
lights  suddenly  revealed,  with  the  result  of 
confusion,  dismay,  flight  in  the  hostile  camp 
and  the  resistless  onslaught  of  the  Jewish  war- 
riors. 


IV.  New  Testament  Short  Stories. 

Between  the  time  of  Gideon  and  the  age  of 
the  Apostles  there  was  an  interval  of  more  than 
twelve  hundred  years.  Before  the  begin- 
ning of  the  Christian  Era,  the  semi-barbarous 
tribes  on  which  the  early  kings  of  Israel  waged 
incessant  warfare  had  been  subdued  or  exter- 
minated; and  Judea  herself  had  become  a 
Roman  province.  Under  the  conciliatory  rule 
of  Tiberius  she  enjoyed  comparative  peace  and 
prosperity.  You  must  not,  then,  expect  to  find 
in  the  New  Testament  tales  of  striplings  slay- 
ing giants,  or  of  Jewish  generals  leading  for- 
lorn hopes  on  to  victory.  Quite  different  is 
the  type  of  hero  in  this  later  age.  As  David  is 
the  dominant  man  in  the  Old  Testament,  so 
St.  Paul  overtops  his  fellows  in  the  New.  In 
this  Roman  citizen  (as  he  was  proud  to  call 
himself)  you  have  a  hero  for  all  time.  Let 
us  consider  his  case. 

47 


THE  BIBLE  AS  GOOD  READING 

Here  we  have  a  young  Pharisee,  a  gentle- 
man, a  man  of  good  family  and  of  some  posi- 
tion in  the  world,  with  the  straitest  of  Jewish 
traditions  behind  him.  He  has  a  sound  educa- 
tion; he  is  well  grounded  in  Greek  philosophy 
and  Roman  law.  His  abilities  are  those  of  a 
man  in  a  million;  a  brilliant  future  is  before 
him.  With  the  fury  of  a  zealot  we  find  him 
upholding  the  old  church  by  persecuting  the 
new.  In  those  days  religion  was  no  mere  fad. 
It  was  a  matter  of  freedom  or  imprisonment; 
often,  one  of  life  or  death.  And  yet,  at  the 
bidding  of  the  heavenly  voice  this  young  man 
of  Tarsus  deliberately  turns  his  back  on  his 
rosy  future  and  casts  in  his  lot  with  a  despised 
and  feeble  sect  whose  leaders  are  peasants  and 
illiterate  fishermen.  Evidently,  the  man  is  a 
fool  or  a  hero;  and  you  shall  see  that  he  is 
no  fool.  Glance  at  the  catalogue  of  St.  Paul's 
hardships  (II  Cor.  11:22-28)  and  you  will 
put  him  in  the  same  class  with  old  Ulysses. 

Read  of  his  arrest;  of  the  attempt  of  the 
mob  on  his  life;  of  his  trials;  of  his  appeal 
48 


NEW  TESTAMENT  SHORT  STORIES 

to  Caesar.  Then  begin  at  the  twenty-seventh 
chapter  of  Acts  and  follow  his  fortunes  as  he 
makes  the  long  and  perilous  journey  from 
Jerusalem  to  Rome.  In  every  verse  there  is 
action,  adventure  or  hairbreadth  escape,  until 
at  length  the  weary  captive  settles  down  in 
Rome  in  his  own  hired  house. 

Does  the  story  of  adventure  pall?  Then 
turn  to  the  eighth  chapter  of  St.  John  and 
you  will  find  (in  less  than  a  dozen  verses)  the 
portrayal  of  a  scene  so  dramatic  that,  even  if 
it  held  no  lofty  lesson,  it  would  take  high  rank 
as  literature.  Do  you  ask  for  pathos?  Read 
the  hundred  words  beginning  at  the  eleventh 
verse  of  the  seventh  chapter  of  St.  Luke — won- 
derful, is  it  not,  how  a  single  phrase  may  color 
a  whole  scene?  The  young  man  of  whom  the 
Evangelist  writes,  was,  you  remember,  "the 
only  son  of  his  mother,  and  she  was  a  widow." 


*—G.  R.  49 


V.  The  Bible  and  Common  Sense. 

In  the  bookstores  there  are  many  volumes 
of  "Maxims"  and  "Thoughts,"  and  they  seem 
to  be  increasing  in  number.  We  have  Marcus 
AureHus,  whose  meditations  are  admirable — I 
advise  every  young  man  to  get  a  copy  of  the 
great  Roman;  Epictetus,  whose  observations 
are  the  keenest  to  be  found  in  literature  any- 
where outside  of  the  Bible ;  La  Rochefoucauld, 
whose  cynical  wisdom  is  very  bright  but 
poisonous  and  untrue ;  and  the  immortal  Tent- 
maker's  Rubaiyat,  which,  correctly  understood, 
are  the  best  commentary  on  the  perspective  of 
life  that  I  know  of.  We  are  having  even  the 
sayings  of  Confucius  rendered  anew,  and  a 
good  many  modern  philosophers  of  epigram 
are  developing,  too. 

And  they  are  all  worth  while.  The  truth 
is  that  almost  any  man  can  write  good  advice 

SI 


THE  BIBLE  AS  GOOD  READING 

if  he  is  in  dead  earnest.  Think,  for  example, 
what  you  who  read  this  would  say  if  you  were 
asked  to  put  in  ten  pages  a  series  of  rules  for 
the  guidance  of  a  son,  brother,  or  friend.  Try 
it — you  will  be  astonished  at  the  sound,  prac- 
tical advice  you  will  prescribe.  But  in  this,  as 
in  every  other  form  of  literature,  the  Bible  is 
so  far  superior  to  all  the  rest  put  together  that 
the  others  seem  to  be  loose  and  wordy  after 
you  have  steeped  yourself  in  the  Proverbs  of 
the  Book  of  Books, 

As  a  matter  of  intellectual  refreshment — as 
a  mere  matter  of  "good  reading" — after  you 
have  thrown  down  your  magazines,  take  up  the 
Bible  and  read  idly  and  casually  from  Proverbs 
or  Ecclesiastes.  You  won't  be  able  to  read 
very  rapidly.  You  will  find  yourself  so  ab- 
sorbed in  every  sentence  that,  in  wonder,  you 
will  exclaim,  "Why  did  I  never  read  this  be- 
fore?" It  will  be  as  if,  in  curiosity,  you  opened 
an  old  trunk  in  the  attic  just  to  see  what  was 
in  it  and  not  because  you  expected  to  find  any- 
thing; and  then,  having  opened  it,  found  the 
52 


THE  BIBLE  AND  COMMON  SENSE 

trunk   full   of   diamonds,   making  you    enor- 
mously rich. 

Let  us  try  two  or  three  of  these  proverbs, 
not  selected  but  taken  absolutely  at  random  as 
the  eye  happens  to  fall  on  a  page : 

Keep  thy  heart  with  all  diligence;    for  out  of  it  arc 
the  issues  of  life. 

or  this: 
Let  thine  eyes  look  right  on. 

or  this: 

A  false  balance  is  abomination  to  the  Lord:    but  a 
just  weight  is  his  delight. 

When  pride  cometh,  then  cometh  shame;    but  with 
the  lowly  is  wisdom. 

or  this: 

Go  from  the  presence  of  a  foolish  man,  when  thou 
perceivest  not  in  him  the  lips  of  knowledge. 

or  this  glorious  sentence: 

Righteousness   exalteth   a   nation:    but   sin  is   a   re- 
proach to  any  people. 

53 


THE  BIBLE  AS  GOOD  READING 

or  this,  which  I  think  the  dearest,  sweetest  and 
noblest  in  the  whole  Bible : 

A  friend  loveth  at  all  times,  and  a  brother  is  born 
for  adversity. 

Solomon  is  ever  sending  his  shafts  straight 
at  the  heart  of  slovenHness,  hypocrisy  and 
drunkenness.  No  wonder  that  our  Lord,  who 
descended  from  Solomon,  was  always  lashing 
the  hypocrites !  It  was  congenital.  His  ances- 
tor, Solomon,  was  always  doing  the  like.  But 
here  are  two  or  three  things  that  Solomon  says 
about  drinking : 

Wine  is  a  mocker,  strong  drink  is  raging:  and  who- 
soever is  deceived  thereby  is  not  wise. 

Who  hath  woe?  who  hath  sorrow?  who  hath  con- 
tentions? who  hath  babbling?  who  hath  wounds  with- 
out cause?    who  hath  redness  of  eyes? 

Evidently  Solomon  would  have  agreed  with 
our  Irish  philosopher,  "Dooley,"  about  the 
modern  "club"  where  men  die  of  what 
"Dooley"  calls  "wet  rot."  For  Solomon  goes 
on: 
54 


THE  BIBLE  AND  COMMON  SENSE 

They  that  tarry  long  at  the  wine;  they  that  go  to 
seek  mixed  wine. 

Lool'  not  thou  upon  the  wine  when  it  is  red— 
No !  nor  any  other  color. 

At  the  last  it  biteth  like  a  serpent,  and  stingeth  like 
an  adder. 

And  does  not  the  following  sound  more 
than  g-ood? 

Boast  not  thyself  of  to  morrow;  for  thou  knowest 
not  what  a  day  may  bring  forth. 

Undoubtedly  Solomon  wrote  the  following 
after  his  wife  had  scolded  him  for  talking 
about  himself: 

Let  another  man  praise  thee,  and  not  thine  own 
mouth;   a  stranger,  and  not  thine  own  lips. 

And  how  absolutely  true  and  wise  is  this : 

Faithful  are  the  wounds  of  a  friend;  but  the  kisses 
of  an  enemy  are  deceitful. 

Next  to  the  Lord's  Prayer  this  petition  is 
the  summit  of  wise  asking  for  God's  favor: 

Remove  far  from  me  vanity  and  lies :  give  me  neither 
poverty  nor  riches.  .  .  . 

SS 


THE  BIBLE  AS  GOOD  READING 

Lest  I  be  full,  and  deny  thee,  and  say,  Who  is  the 
Lord?  or  lest  I  be  poor,  and  steal,  and  take  the  name 
of  iny  God  in  vain. 

Solomon  understood  the  hollowness  of 
riches.  He  is  always  saying  things  like  this 
and  he  knew: 

Labor  not  to  be  rich :  cease  from  thine  own  wisdom 
.  .  .  for  richfcs  certainly  make  themselves  wings. 

A  good  name  is  rather  to  be  chosen  than  great 
riches;    and  loving  favour  rather  than  silver  or  gold. 

He  that  hasteth  to  be  rich  hath  an  evil  eye,  and  con- 
sidereth  not  that  poverty  shall  come  upon  him. 

It  is  better  to  dwell  in  a  corner  of  the  housetop, 
than  with  a  brawling  woman  in  a  wide  house. 

Whoso  keepeth  his  mouth  and  his  tongue  kcepeth  his 
soul  from  troubles. 

Don't  think,  though,  that  this  wise  man, 
Solomon,  was  always  dealing  out  a  lot  of 
maxims.  He  was,  of  all  rulers,  the  most  just; 
of  all  men  the  most  wise,  of  all  administrators 
the  most  able,  unless  we  except  Moses.  But 
56 


THE  BIBLE  AND  COMMON  SENSE 

he  was  also  a  poet — and  a  poet  of  the  moods 
of  hot  blood  and  desire.  Of  all  the  poets  of 
passion  the  man  who  wrote  the  Proverbs  was 
the  most  burning.  He  sings  love's  very  de- 
lirium. 

Job  is  the  great  dramatic  poem  of  the  Bible 
and  abounds  in  noble  passages,  lofty  concep- 
tions and  overwhelming  presentations  of  the 
majesty  of  the  Creator.  It  is  classed  among 
the  "Wisdom  Books"  on  account  of  its  lesson : 
that  man  is  a  creature  too  fleeting  and  too 
finite  to  question  the  justice  of  a  God  of  in- 
finite wisdom  and  limitless  power. 

There  is  an  old  story  of  a  man  who  having 
read  Hamlet  for  the  first  time  exclaimed, 
"Why !  It's  made  up  almost  entirely  of  quota- 
tions!" His  cry  would  have  been  the  same 
had  he  read  Isaiah;  for  of  all  the  prophets  he 
is  the  most  quotable.  The  twenty-eighth  and 
fifty-third  chapters  will  give  you  at  least  a 
partial  idea  of  the  power  and  beauty  and 
solemnity  of  the  whole  majestic  book.  Jere- 
miah and  some  of  the  minor  prophets,  too, 

57 


THE  BIBLE  AS  GOOD  READING 

will  repay  you  an  hundredfold  for  every  min- 
ute you  devote  to  them. 

These  prophets  were  a  mighty  race,  and  to 
this  day  our  civilization  bears  their  stamps — 
clean  cut  as  the  proof  impression  from  a  newly- 
cut  seal.  Let  us  consider  the  mightiest  of  this 
mighty  race. 


58 


VI.  The  Story  of  Moses. 

The  story  of  Moses  illustrates  how  Fate 
plans  great  men's  entrances  into  the  world  as 
carefully  as  she  arranges  the  whole  pattern 
of  their  lives.  And  yet  it  is  not  Fate  at  all. 
The  great  are  made  so  by  the  vigor  of  parents, 
prenatal  influences,  early  environment.  Who 
doubts  that  Bonaparte  would  not  have  de- 
veloped into  Napoleon,  the  world-conqueror, 
had  not  his  mother  been  a  woman  of  immense 
abilities  and  extraordinary  energies?  And 
also  before  he  was  born  had  she  not  ridden, 
by  day  and  by  night,  with  her  husband  in  the 
Corsican  campaigns,  studying,  witnessing, 
practicing  strategy  with  the  ablest  soldiers  on 
the  field,  enduring  privations  of  march  and 
camp  and  experiencing  the  determined  courage 
which  the  battlefield  inspires? 

Was  not  Alexander  the  son  of  Philip  ?  Was 
he  not  born  in  the  very  whirlwind  of  warfare? 

59 


THE  BIBLE  AS  GOOD  READING 

Did  he  not  spring  from  the  loins  of  an  unex- 
hausted statesman  and  warrior;  and  are  we 
not  told  that  the  queen  dreamed  that  she  was 
to  be  the  mother  of  a  lion?  It  was  not  for 
nothing  that  Abraham  Lincoln's  parents  were 
the  poorest  of  the  poor  and  the  commonest  of 
the  common  people.  It  was  this  which  gave 
him  his  "blood-understanding"  —  so  much 
deeper  and  truer  than  the  brain-understanding 
— of  the  masses,  of  their  wants,  needs,  destiny. 
It  was  this  which  gave  him  the  breadth  of  wis- 
dom to  know  the  common  mind — the  breadth 
of  wisdom  so  much  wider  and  deeper  than 
that  of  the  ablest  statesman  who  does  not  have 
this  kinship  with  the  millions. 

If  you  look  narrowly  you  will  see  how  For- 
tune marks  those  whom  she  means  to  make  the 
officers  of  her  large  designs  by  peculiarities  of 
their  birth  and  parenthood.  It  is  all  quite 
natural  and  entirely  scientific;  but  it  is  so 
striking  and  apparently  exceptional  that  we 
cannot  wonder  that  ruder  people  were  super- 
stitious about  such  things. 


THE  STORY  OF  MOSES 

This  same  thing  was  markedly  true  of  the 
man  who  is  one  of  the  greatest  of  all  merely 
human  personages  —  the  Jewish  law-giver, 
statesman,  leader — Moses.  In  the  first  place, 
the  Egyptians  in  their  fear  of  the  multiplying 
power  of  the  children  of  Israel,  as  a  means  of 
retarding  it  used  the  very  methods  to  advance 
it.  They  put  the  Hebrews  at  hard  work  in  the 
open  air.  Still  they  waxed  stronger!  Of 
course,  they  waxed  stronger!  But  this  aston- 
ished the  Egyptians,  so  they  set  taskmasters 
over  them,  and  regulated  the  work  of  the  Israel- 
ites with  rigid  severity. 

And  they  [the  Egyptians]  made  their  lives  bitter  with 
hard  bondage,  ...  all  their  service,  wherein  they  made 
them  serve,  was  with  rigour. 

And,  of  course,  they  grew  harder-muscled, 
steadier-nerved,  and,  because  of  the  watchful- 
ness constantly  maintained  over  them,  quicker- 
minded.  Every  year  they  learned  discipHne 
and  acquired  an  instinct  for  solidarity.  It  was 
the  very  training  necessary  to  produce  a  people 
from  whom  should  spring  a  fearless,  method- 

6i 


THE  BIBLE  AS  GOOD  READING 

ical,  inventive  statesman,  full  of  initiative. 
And  it  was  from  parents  of  the  more  intel- 
lectual type  among  such  a  people,  whose  very 
intellectuality  had  been  vitalized  and  made 
orderly  by  disciplined  work,  that  Moses  came. 
He  appeared,  too,  at  a  time  when  all  of  the 
male  children  of  the  Hebrews  were  to  be  killed 
under  the  orders  of  Pharaoh.  That  her  son 
should  escape  this  fate  was  undoubtedly  the 
consuming  care  of  Moses'  mother.  She 
kept  Moses  to  herself  until  she  could  conceal 
him  no  longer.  Then  she  made  her  little  ark 
of  bulrushes,  put  Moses  in  it  and  set  him  afloat 
in  the  water  where  the  weeds  were  thick  enough 
to  keep  him  from  being  drawn  away  by  the 
current.  Then  comes  the  incident  of  Pharaoh's 
daughter  finding  him;  unwittingly  giving 
Moses'  own  mother  to  him  as  a  nurse;  bring- 
ing up  the  future  deliverer  of  Israel  in  her  own 
house;  thus  bestowing  upon  him  all  the  in- 
struction and  training  of  a  prince.  An  ideal 
birth  and  an  ideal  training  for  a  great  work, 
was  it  not? 
62 


THE  STORY  OF  MOSES 

Then  comes  the  incident  of  Moses  killing  the 
Egyptian,  which  proves  his  volcano-like  pas- 
sion ;  the  discovery  of  his  crime  and  his  flight, 
which  proves  his  prudence ;  his  courtesy  to  the 
daughters  of  the  priest  of  Midian,  which  demon- 
strates the  human  touch  in  him;  his  service  as 
a  shepherd  of  this  Midianite,  whose  daughter 
he  had  married  (for  Moses  was  a  marrying 
man  from  the  first). 

I  am  not  going  to  tell  you  all  of  this  fas- 
cinating history  of  this  mighty  man,  so  full 
of  human  incident — read  it  for  yourself  in  the 
words  of  the  best  of  story-tellers  and  biog- 
raphers. Find  out  how  he  got  back  to  Egypt; 
the  boldness  and  craft  of  his  leadership  of  his 
oppressed  people  and  all  of  the  circumstances 
of  his  development  as  statesman  and  law-giver. 
There  is  not  a  dull  line  among  them  except  the 
occasional  genealogies — ^which  are  always  dull, 
in  the  Bible  and  every  place  else. 

I  do  not  recall  a  more  tremendous  picture 
in  any  literature  I  ever  heard  of  than  that  of 
the  passage  of  the  children  of  Israel  through 

63 


THE  BIBLE  AS  GOOD  READING 

the  Red  Sea,  and  the  catastrophe  that  over- 
threw the  Egyptians  following  them.  This 
whole  chapter  might  be  devoted  to  the  four- 
teenth chapter  of  Exodus. 

How  like  the  fear  of  masses  of  people  was 
the  terror  of  the  Israelites  when  they  saw  the 
Egyptians  coming  after  them!  And  how  like 
real  greatness  in  all  times  is  the  splendid  spirit 
of  Moses  when  he  told  them:  "Fear  ye  not; 
stand  still,  and  see  the  salvation  of  the  Lord !" 

Moses  was  always  thus  inspiring  the  people 
when  they  needed  it  and  rebuking  them  with 
equal  vigor  when  they  needed  rebuke. 

But  I  will  pass  all  this  and  come  to  the  laws 
of  Moses — his  real  work  and  his  immortal 
monument 


64 


VII.  Moses  the  Law-Giver. 

From  the  very  day  of  Moses'  return  to 
Egypt  we  find  him  giving  orders  of  one  kind 
or  another  to  all  the  children  of  Israel;  an4, 
significantly  enough,  they  are  nearly  all  of 
them  about  eating  and  drinking — evidently  the 
prime  importance  of  the  laws  of  hygiene  im- 
pressed itself  upon  this  practical  statesman. 
Moses  bad  great  difficulty  with  the  children  of 
Israel  in  the  wilderness.  It  is  interesting  to 
see  him  enforcing  one  simple  commandment 
after  another,  such  as  the  keeping  of  the  Sab- 
bath— Moses,  I  believe,  was  the  first  of  the 
Hebrews  to  put  that  custom  into  actual  prac- 
tice. As  fast  as  he  could  get  them  used  to  it 
he  assumed  a  judgeship  over  them.  The  Bible 
says: 

Moses  sat  to  judge  the  people:   and  the  people  stood 
by  Moses  from  the  morning  unto  the  evening. 

S—G.  R.  65 


THE  BIBLE  AS  GOOD  READING 

Moses'  father-in-law  objected  to  this;  and 
they  had  an  argument  about  it.  Here  is  the 
way  the  Bible  puts  it : 

The  thing  that  thou  doest  is  not  good. 

Thou  wilt  surely  wear  away,  both  thou,  and  this  peo- 
ple that  is  with  thee:  for  this  thing  is  too  heavy  for 
thee;    thou  art  not  able  to  perform  it  thyself  alone. 

Decidedly  the  old  man  was,  in  this  instance, 
wiser  than  Moses,  as  witness  his  following 
remarks  to  Moses : — 

Hearken  now  unto  my  voice,  I  will  give  thee  counsel, 
and  God  shall  be  with  thee:  Be  thou  for  the  people 
to  Godward,  that  thou  mayest  bring  the  causes  unto 
God: 

And  thou  shalt  teach  them  ordinances  and  laws,  and 
shalt  shew  them  .  .  .  the  work  that  they  must  do. 

Moreover  thou  shalt  provide  out  of  all  the  people  able 
men,  such  as  fear  God,  men  of  truth,  hating  covetous- 
ness;  and  place  such  over  them,  to  be  rulers  of  thou- 
sands, and  rulers  of  hundreds,  rulers  of  fifties,  and 
rulers  of  tens: 

And  let  them  judge  the  people  at  all  seasons:  and 
it  shall  be,  that  every  great  matter  they  shall  bring 
unto  thee,  but  every  small  matter  they  shall  j  udge : 
so  shall  it  be  easier  for  thyself,  and  they  shall  bear 
the  burden  with  thee. 
66 


MOSES  THE  LAW-GIVER 

Moses  saw  the  good  sense  of  that,  and  in- 
stantly adopted  the  idea.  There  again  was 
greatness.  A  great  man  is  not  he  who  thinks 
up  everything  for  himself.  The  great  man  is 
he  who  is  hospitable  to  ideas,  no  matter  from 
what  source  they  come. 

So  this  was  the  origin  of  the  judicial  system 
of  the  Jewish  people. 

Very  soon  Moses  saw  that  practical  judg- 
ments were  not  enough.  The  people  must  have 
moral  laws  and  observe  them  from  generation 
to  generation  until  they  were  transformed  into 
human  character.  So  God  delivered  to  him 
the  Ten  Commandments,  which  he  delivered  to 
the  Jewish  people;  and  these  commandments, 
handed  down  from  Sinai,  are,  with  the  modifi- 
cations which  the  Saviour  made,  the  founda- 
tion of  the  morality  of  all  the  civilized  world 
in  the  twentieth  century. 

That  is  a  vast  thing,  when  you  think  about 
it.  All  the  righteousness  of  the  world  is  con- 
densed into  a  few  sentences  given  to  a  semi- 
barbarous  people  thousands  and  thousands  of 

67 


THE  BIBLE  AS  GOOD  READING 

years  ago,  and  perfected  by  our  Lord  two  thou- 
sand years  ago.  I  defy  any  man  to  read  the 
Bible  without  being  immensely  interested,  and 
also  without  acquiring  a  respect  amounting  al- 
most to  awe  for  the  mind  and  conscience  that 
could  have  devised  it — this  at  least,  if  indeed, 
like  myself,  you  do  not  come  to  see  that  it  was 
more  than  a  human  wisdom;  it  was  entirely  a 
Divine  Wisdom, 

Now  we  get  to  the  laws  of  Moses.  I  do  not 
think  that  the  lawyers  that  are  being  developed 
now  are  so  good  as  our  earlier  lawyers;  be- 
cause not  many  of  them  read  the  Bible,  and 
very  few,  indeed,  are  well  grounded  in  it.  In 
a  former  time,  boys  who  afterward  became 
lawyers  were  really  deeply  read  in  the  ordi- 
nances of  the  first  and  greatest  law-givers  of 
the  world — the  ancient  Hebrews.  You  will  be 
astonished  to  find  how  the  roots  of  our  law  run 
back  to  the  Hebrew  encampments  in  the  wilder- 
ness. But  there  is  not  time  to  trace  out  that 
most  engaging  connection. 

Let  us  take  a  few  of  these  statutes  as  ex- 
68 


MOSES  THE  LAW-GIVER 

amples  of  wonderful  and  exceedingly  practical 
human  wisdom.  The  very  first  thing  we  notice 
is  a  tendency  toward  liberty — even  toward 
democracy;  for  you  must  know  that  the 
Jewish  people  were  the  first  champions  of 
liberty  the  world  ever  saw.  Don't  forget  that 
it  was  a  time  when  slavery  was  universal.  Yet, 
here  is  this  law : 

If  thou  buy  an  Hebrew  servant,  six  years  he  shall 
serve :  and  in  the  seventh  he  shall  go  out  free  for 
nothing. 

There  are  many  and  rigid  laws  against 
murder,  wounding  and  fighting  of  all  kinds — 
evidently  Moses'  people  were  very  hot-blooded. 
Here  again  the  tendency  toward  freedom  oc- 
curs— Moses  never  lost  an  opportunity  to  make 
an  excuse  to  set  servants  free.     For  example: 

And  if  a  man  smite  the  eye  of  his  servant,  or  the 
eye  of  his  maid,  that  it  perish ;  he  shall  let  him  go 
free  for  his  eye's  sake. 

And  the  same  of  a  tooth. 
The  law  of  damages  is  minute;   and  up  to 
an   hundred   years   ago   the   preceding   thou- 

69 


THE  BIBLE  AS  GOOD  READING 

sands  of  years  had  wrought  very  little  improve- 
ment in  it.  In  some  respects  the  laws  of  Moses 
were  better  than  ours. 

For  all  manner  of  trespass  .  .  .  the  cause  of  both 
parties  shall  come  before  the  judges;  and  whom  the 
judges  shall  condemn,  he  shall  pay  double  unto  his 
neighbor. 

In  the  more  delicate  affairs  of  life  the  laws 
of  Moses  were  most  humane,  considerate  and 
just — in  some  respects  much  more  so  than  our 
own  to-day.  And  occasionally  he  rises  to  the 
heights  of  Him  of  the  Mount  of  Olives,  as, 
for  example,  in  his  famous  ordinance: 

Ye  shall  not  afflict  any  widow,  or  fatherless  child. 

And  this  was  not  only  moral  law,  but  a  prac- 
tical rule  of  action  and  punishment  rigidly  en- 
forced. And  his  laws  against  usury  are  equally 
effective. 

The  foregoing  laws  are  pretty  good,  are  they 
not?  But,  mind  you,  they  are  only  the  begin- 
nings— the  first  attempts  of  Moses.  Here  are 
some  examples  after  he  got  thoroughly  trained 
70 


MOSES  THE  LAW-GIVER 

to  his  work.  We  must  note  that  the  very  first 
and  most  numerous  of  these  concern  the  health 
of  the  people.  From  the  time  of  Moses  until 
this  day,  the  most  perfect  laws  of  hygiene  ever 
developed  were  the  health  ordinances  of  the 
great  Hebrew  law-giver: 

Whatsoever  parteth  the  hoof,  and  is  clovenfooted,  and 
cheweth  the  cud,  among  the  beasts,  that  shall  ye  eat. 

But  they  were  forbidden  to  eat  anything  else, 
and,  as  we  know  to-day,  for  most  excellent 
scientific  reasons.    And  as  to  water-animal  life : 

Whatsoever  hath  fins  and  scales  in  the  waters,  in  the 
seas,  and  in  the  rivers,  them  shall  ye  eat. 

But  everything  else  in  the  waters  were  "an 
abomination."  Then  he  enumerates  all  the 
kinds  of  birds  they  may  not  eat.  Every  kind 
of  scavenger  on  water,  on  land  or  in  the  air 
was  condemned.  Moses  was  so  particular 
about  it  that  he  commanded  that 

Whosoever  toucheth  the  carcase  of  them  shall  be 
unclean  until  the  even. 

71 


THE  BIBLE  AS  GOOD  READING 

Even  to  the  varieties  of  fowl,  fish  and  beast 
to  which  Moses  confined  the  IsraeHtes  he  ap- 
pHed  the  most  searching  methods  to  determine 
whether  even  these  were  in  good  health.  I 
know  nothing  more  impressive  than  this  fact, 
that  down  to  twenty-fit^e  years  ago  the  most 
perfect  method  to  determine  whether  any  bird, 
fish  or  animal  was  healthful  was  the  Jewish 
method  of  Moses.  In  America,  up  to  the  time 
of  our  Meat  Inspection  Law,  the  Kosher 
slaughter-houses  were  the  most  scientifically 
hygienic  in  all  the  thousands  of  years  from  the 
time  of  Moses. 

Take,  for  example,  the  precautions  in  de- 
termining the  wholesomeness  of  beef.  In  the 
Kosher  slaughter-house  the  animal  is  elevated 
by  the  hind  quarters,  so  that  all  the  blood  runs 
toward  the  head.  Then  the  throat  is  cut  by  a 
single  stroke  of  a  long  knife,  designed  for  this 
purpose;  and  every  drop  of  the  blood  is 
drained  away.  The  animal  is  then  cut  open 
and  the  hand  inserted  and  the  sides  within 
carefully  felt  to  see  whether  there  are  any  ad- 
7a 


MOSES  THE  LAW-GIVER 

hesions.  If  a  single  one  is  felt  the  animal  is 
condemned.  The  lungs  are  blown  into,  and  if 
the  least  air  escapes  the  animal  is  condemned. 
And  so  on  with  other  like  precautions,  every 
one  of  which,  as  we  now  know,  is  entirely 
scientific.  And  yet  this  practice  is  not  one  whit 
different  to-day  than  it  was  in  the  days  of 
Moses. 

The  truth  is  that  the  Jews  are  the  only  peo- 
ple who  as  a  people,  and  speaking  by  and  large, 
have  been  eating  wholesome  meat  for  several 
thousand  years.  Sometimes  this  entails  sac- 
rifice among  the  poor.  For  example,  I  know 
of  one  instance  where  a  Jewish  family  in  Ger- 
many had  fattened  a  fowl  for  one  of  their  holi- 
days. As  they  were  required  to  do,  they  took 
it  to  the  priest,  who,  upon  examination  accord- 
ing to  the  Mosaic  rules,  found  it  unwhole- 
some. This  family  immediately  sold  it  to 
Christians  in  open  market,  as  they  had  a  per- 
fect right  to  do,  because  the  Christians  were 
then  eating,  and  have  always  been  eating,  a 
good,  fat  fowl  without  ever  thinking  whether 

73 


THE  BIBLE  AS  GOOD  READING 

there  was  anything  the  matter  with  it  or  not 
We  sometimes  wonder  at  the  amazing 
vitaHty  of  the  Jews — their  physical  persistence 
as  a  people — ^but  if  you  read  the  laws  of  Moses 
and  reflect  that  they  have  been  observed  rigidly 
even  to  this  day,  wonder  begins  to  dissolve. 

Of  course,  I  cannot  devote  too  much  space 
to  the  laws  of  Moses;  but  suffer  one  or  two 
further  examples.  Nothing  shows  the  deep 
statesmanship  of  this  wonderful  man  and  his 
craft  in  the  service  of  liberty  so  much  as  his 
institution  of  the  year  of  the  Jubilee,  which 
came  every  fifty  years.  In  that  year  every 
bondsman  went  free  and  every  man  returned  to 
his  own  possessions. 

And  ye  shall  hallow  the  fiftieth  year,  and  proclaim 
liberty  throughout  all  the  land  unto  all  the  inhabitants 
thereof:  it  shall  be  a  jubile  unto  you;  and  ye  shall 
return  every  man  unto  his  possession,  and  ye  shall  re- 
turn every  man  unto  his  family. 

Everybody  set  free;  all  debts  discharged; 
all  mortgages  lifted.  It  was  something  for  the 
people  to  look  forward  to.     They  were  not  to 

74 


MOSES  THE  LAW-GIVER 

be  eternally  chained  to  existing  conditions. 
There  was  to  be  a  new  deal  all  around.  What 
a  large  wisdom — what  a  far-seeing  justice! 
It  is  far  beyond  anything  of  which  we  are 
capable  to-day.  Any  person  preaching  that 
doctrine  to-day  would  surely  be  called  an 
anarchist. 

The  large  tolerance  and  nobility  of  mercy 
in  the  laws  of  Moses,  even  with  all  of  their 
rigor,  are  inspiring.  For  example,  if  a  man 
got  to  be  so  poor  that  he  had  to  sell  his  posses- 
sions, any  of  his  kin  could  come  around  to  the 
buyer  and  redeem  them.  With  us  in  this 
twentieth  century  when  a  man  sells  anything  it 
is  gone  for  good  and  all,  no  matter  why  he  had 
to  sell  it.  The  Mosaic  law  of  redemption  ap- 
plies now  only  to  tax  sales. 

The  Mosaic  laws  on  divorce  contain  the 
highest  justice  toward  woman  the  world  ever 
saw  down  to  the  time  of  Christ.  Before  Moses 
(and,  excepting  only  among  the  Jewish  peo- 
ple after  him,  for  that  matter),  a  man  put 
away  his  wife  at  will,  and  she  was  more  or 

75 


THE  BIBLE  AS  GOOD  READING 

less  an  outcast.  But  with  Moses  there  was 
a  regular  bill  of  divorcement.  Everything  is 
so  full  of  common-sense.  For  example,  take 
these  statutes  concerning  the  honeymoon: 

When  a  man  hath  taken  a  new  wife,  he  shall  not 
go  out  to  war,  neither  shall  he  be  charged  with  any 
business :  but  he  shall  be  free  at  home  one  year,  and 
shall  cheer  up  his  wife  which  he  hath  taken. 

This  was  not  only  kindness  and  an  under- 
standing of  the  situation;  but  it  was  great 
shrewdness,  also.  The  man  would  probably  be 
worth  very  little  that  year,  anyhow.  I  must 
again  repeat  the  element  of  mercy  running 
through  the  laws  of  Moses,  and  in  an  age,  re- 
member, when  mercy  was  very  little  heard  of 
or  understood.    For  example : 

Thou  shalt  not  lend  upon  usury  to  thy  brother: 

or. 

No  man  shall  take  the  nether  or  the  upper  millstone 
to  pledge:   for  hetaketh  a  man's  life  to  pledge: 

or, 
76 


MOSES  THE  LAW-GIVER 

If  a  man  be  poor,  thou  shalt  not  sleep  with  his  pledge : 
In  any  case  thou  shalt  deliver  him  the  pledge  again 

when  the  sun  goeth  down,  that  he  may  sleep  in  his 

own  raiment,  and  bless  thee: 

or, 

Thou  shalt  not  oppress  a  hired  servant  that  is  poor 
and  needy.  ...  At  his  day  thou  shalt  give  him  his 
hire,  neither  shall  the  sun  go  down  upon  it;  for  he  is 
poor  and  setteth  his  heart  upon  it: 

or, 

When  thou  cuttest  down  thine  harvest  in  thy  field, 
and  hast  forgot  a  sheaf  in  the  field,  thou  shalt  not  go 
again  to  fetch  it :  it  shall  be  for  the  stranger,  for  the 
fatherless,  and  for  the  widow: 

or. 

When  thou  beatest  thine  olive  tree,  thou  shalt  not  go 
over  the  boughs  again:  it  shall  be  for  the  stranger, 
for  the   fatherless,  and   for  the  widow. 

When  thou  gatherest  the  grapes  of  thy  vineyard, 
thou  shalt  not  glean  it  afterward :  it  shall  be  for  the 
stranger,  for  the  fatherless,  and  for  the  widow. 

This  mercy  extended  even  to  the  animals, 
as,  for  example: 

77 


THE  BIBLE  AS  GOOD  READING 

Thou  shalt  not  muzzle  the  ox  when  he  treadeth  out 
the  com. 

Or  take  this,  at  a  time,  remember,  when 
everybody  thought  it  perfectly  right  to  cheat 
— even  the  ancestors  of  Moses  himself,  as  wit- 
ness the  deceit  of  Esau  and  the  trick  of  Jacob 
played  upon  Laban.  Moses  would  have  none 
of  that,  and  said : 

Thou  shalt  not  have  in  thy  bag  divers  weights,  a 
great  and  a  small. 

But  thou  shalt  have  a  perfect  and  just  weight. 

In  short,  go  over  the  laws  of  Moses.  They 
will  surprise  you  much  more  than  any  flimsy 
sensation  that  you  see  in  the  newspapers,  and 
they  will  instruct  you  mightily.  They  are 
golden  hours  indeed  one  spends  with  this 
master  wise  man  of  the  ancient  time,  states- 
man and  law-giver,  dreamer  and  man  of  affairs, 
physician  and  poet. 

Finally,  Moses  came  to  his  end.  How 
grandly  tragic  was  his  final  day!  He  never 
set  foot  in  the  promised  land  toward  which  he 
had  led  his  people.  But  he  was  permitted  to 
7i 


MOSES  THE  LAW-GIVER 

look  upon  it.  Indeed,  that  is  the  most,  it 
seems,  that  is  permitted  to  the  vastly  great. 
They  see  the  vision ;  they  plan  the  march ;  they 
captain  the  advance — ^but  they  enter  not  into 
the  fulfillment.  And  so  Moses,  the  greatest  of 
the  great,  went  up  into  Mount  Nebo,  and  the 
promised  land  unrolled  before  him.  And  then 
the  great  one  fell.  His  work  was  finished,  and 
he  fell.  And,  a  hundred  and  twenty  years 
though  he  was,  "his  eye  was  not  dim,  nor  his 
natural  force  abated." 


79 


VIII.  Joseph  the  Dreamer. 

In  writing  of  the  courtship  of  Rebekah,  i 
said  that  there  were  two  pictures  that  I  should 
like  to  paint.  The  other  picture  is  that  of  "The 
Dreamer" — the  dreamer,  Joseph.  For  Joseph, 
like  all  men  who  achieve  great  things,  was  a 
dreamer  in  his  youth,  and  a  dreamer  for  all  his 
life;  but  he  was  a  doer  and  an  achiever  as 
well  as  a  dreamer.  In  these  dreams,  too,  there 
was  a  vast  egotism — another  common  trait  of 
all  mountainous  characters.  For  example, 
there  was  Caesar,  with  his  *7  came,  /  saw,  / 
conquered" ;  there  was  Caesar  telling  every- 
body in  the  apparently  sinking  ship  to  fear  not, 
"you  carry  Caesar  and  his  fortunes."  So  I 
could  go  on  with  almost  numberless  illustra- 
tions: Gibbon,  in  literature,  Bismarck,  Ito, 
Frederick,  Alexander,  Cromwell,  Rhodes, 
Gladstone,  Napoleon,  Disraeli — indeed,  every- 

6—G.  R.  8i 


THE  BIBLE  AS  GOOD  READING 

body  big  enough  to  be  remembered — Wesley, 
Loyola,  Mohammed,  Carlyle  or  Ben  Jonson — 
every  mountainous  character,  I  tell  you. 

I  have  heard  "two  by  four"  persons  com- 
plain daintily,  and  fiercely  jealous  ones  de- 
nounce violently,  Roosevelt  for  "his  egotism." 
It's  no  whit  different  from  Joseph's  or  David's, 
or  any  of  the  really  great  of  human  history. 
Emerson  explains  it  all — as  he  explains  nearly 
everything.  (Read  Emerson,  a  little,  at  least, 
every  day,  as  well  as  the  Bible. )  Who  but  one 
with  an  immortal  confidence  in  himself,  his 
own  rectitude  and  the  actual  and  potential 
greatness  of  the  American  nation,  could  rightly 
represent  this  tremendous,  incalculably  vast 
and  effective — aye,  and  most  confident — force 
in  the  world,  called  the  American  people?  It 
is  this  same  kind  of  peculiar  egotism  that 
characterizes  the  dreams  of  Joseph.  But 
you  will  remember,  of  course,  his  two  principal 
dreams. 

The  first  was  ^bout  himself  and  his  brethren, 
and  the  Bible  ^^uts  it  thus  in  the  words  of 
82 


JOSEPH  THE  DREAMER 

Joseph :    "Hear,  I  pray  you,  this  dream  which 
I  have  dreamed : 

"For,  behold,  we  were  binding  sheaves  in  the  field, 
and,  lo,  my  sheaf  arose,  and  also  stood  upright ;  and, 
behold,  your  sheaves  stood  round  about,  and  made 
obeisance  to  my  sheaf." 

And  the  other  dream  is  described  with  equal 
brevity  and  vividness: 

"And  he  dreamed  yet  another  dream,  and  told  it  his 
brethren,  and  said,  Behold,  I  have  dreamed  a  dream 
more:  and,  behold,  the  sun  and  the  moon  and  the 
eleven  stars  made  obeisance  to  me." 

That  meant,  of  course,  as  the  story  explains, 
that  not  only  did  his  brothers  bow  down  to  him 
but  his  father  and  mother  also.  It  was  quite 
natural  that  a  man  of  this  peculiar  imaginative 
temperament  should  be  called  "The  Dreamer," 
as  indeed  he  was,  and  also  that  he  should  have 
been  as  unpopular  with  his  brethren  as  he  was 
popular  with  his  infatuated  father. 

One  day,  his  brethren  went  to  shear  and  feed 
their  father's  sheep  in  Shechem.  His  father, 
Israel,  sent  Joseph  out  to  find  his  brethren.    He 

83 


THE  BIBLE  AS  GOOD  READING 

had  a  little  difficulty  in  finding  them,  for  they 
had  moved  on  to  another  place  called  Dothan. 
There  Joseph  proceeded.  When  he  was  quite 
afar  off  one  of  his  brothers  saw  him  coming, 
but  Joseph  did  not  see  them.  Oh,  no !  he  was 
"dreaming."  You  can  see  him  now  if  you  will 
close  your  eyes — lithe  and  strong  and  fine, 
wandering  slowly,  and  his  great  dark  eyes  filled 
with  visions  of  another  time  and  of  another 
land,  of  great  enterprises  and  splendid  duties 
and  mighty  deeds — dreaming,  always  dream- 
ing, and  with  the  dreamer's  halo  about  him. 

Again  it  was  drawing  toward  evening,  we 
may  well  believe.  The  sun  was  sinking  behind 
the  western  hills;  the  trees  were  silhouetted 
against  the  sky;  and  down  in  the  valley  the 
brethren  attending  the  sheep,  and  toward  them 
with  unseeing  and  yet  all-seeing  eyes  came 
Joseph,  the  dreamer;  and  when  his  brothers 
saw  him  coming,  they  said  one  to  another: 
"Behold,  this  dreamer  cometh."  Why  has  not 
some  great  artist  painted  that  marvelous  pic- 
ture? 
84 


IX.  St.  Paul:   Orator  and  Missionary. 

Now  for  another  turn  of  the  Scriptural  cine- 
matograph; for  the  Great  Volume  is  just  that, 
revealing  successive  pictures,  startling  changes, 
no  two  alike  and  all  interesting;  that's  the 
point  I'm  making  now — the  Bible  is  "interest- 
ing."    Well  then,  some  oratory. 

Everybody  is  interested  in  oratory.  Some 
of  us  may  think  we  are  not.  But  let  such  a 
scoffer  at  the  power  of  speech  fall  under  the 
spell  of  a  master  of  the  art  and  he  changes  his 
mind.  So,  let  us  take  the  master  effort  of 
the  most  finished  orator  of  ancient  times,  and 
possibly  of  all  time — of  course,  you  know  that 
I  am  referring  to  Paul's  oration  on  Mars'  Hill. 
We  hear  this  perfect  example  of  the  art  of 
oratory  read  to  us  and  get  very  little  of  its 
meaning,  none  of  its  beauty,  and  absolutely  no 
idea  whatever  of  the  power  with  which  it  was 

85 


THE  BIBLE  AS  GOOD  READING 

spoken  and  of  its  almost  hypnotic  effect  over 
Paul's  difficult  audience.  It  is  hard,  of  course, 
to  get  it  to  you  in  cold  type.  But,  perhaps, 
we  can  get  some  notion  of  it. 

In  the  first  place,  then,  remember  that  Paul 
was  a  man  of  finished  education.  He  had  been 
very  decidedly  a  mart  of  the  world.  There  was 
little  that  anybody  could  teach  him.  It  is  easy 
to  see  how,  after  his  conversion,  he  became 
by  common  consent  the  leading  advocate  of 
Christianity.  He  went  about  preaching 
the  gospel  with  inspired  eloquence  and  with 
a  logic  that  no  man  before  or  since  has 
equaled. 

This  was  the  state  of  afifairs  when  he  came 
to  Athens.  The  Athens  of  that  time  was  in  her 
decadence.  She  had  reached  the  height  of  her 
achievements  in  the  time  of  Pericles — heights 
so  lofty  and  made  by  her  genius  so  brilliant  that 
they  yet  flame  before  our  eyes  across  the  cen- 
turies. In  Paul's  time  Athens  was  the  center 
of  a  super-civilized,  overeducated,  decadent 
people.  The  Athenians  believed  in  nothing, 
86 


ST.  PAUL  :  ORATOR  AND  MISSIONARY 

and,  like  all  agnostics,  were  really  superstitious 
about  everything.     The  Bible  says  that 

All  the  Athenians  and  strangers  which  were  there 
spent  their  time  in  nothing  else,  but  either  to  tell,  or 
to  hear  some  new  thing. 

So  when  Paul  came  among  them  they  were 
interested,  curious,  amused.  Here  was  "some- 
thing new''  at  last.  So  they  asked  Paul  to  ex- 
ploit his  doctrines,  and,  of  course,  he  consented. 
That's  what  he  was  there  for.  They  took  him 
to  the  Areopagus,  saying: 

May  we  know  what  this  new  doctrine,  whereof  thou 
speakest,  is? 

For  thou  bringest  certain  strange  things  to  our  ears: 
we  would  know  therefcrre  what  these  things  mean. 

Paul  understood  his  audience.  He  waited 
till  there  was  absolute  silence — until  you  could 
"hear  a  pin  drop,"  as  our  saying  has  it.  And 
then  quite  naturally,  as  though  he  were  utter- 
ing the  most  commonplace  truism  imaginable, 
he  began  his  immortal  address,  as  follows : 

Ye  men  of  Athens,  I  perceive  that  in  all  things  you 
are  too  superstitious. 

87 


THE  BIBLE  AS  GOOD  READING 

Then  he  paused.  That  sentence  fixed  them 
— absolutely  chained  their  attention.  He 
struck  them  at  their  weakest  point;  for,  al- 
though they  were  the  most  superstitious  of 
creatures,  they  prided  themselves  that  they 
were  not  superstitious  at  all.  After  a  moment, 
when  he  had  let  this  thunderbolt  of  a  sentence 
penetrate  into  their  very  souls,  he  went  on  prov- 
ing the  statement  by  example  (and  here  the 
rules  of  the  art  are  perfectly  observed;  you 
must  support  each  statement  by  an  illustration). 
So  he  continued : 

For,  as  I  passed  by,  and  beheld  your  devotions,  I 
found  an  altar  with  this  inscription,  To  the  unknown 
God. 

Undoubtedly  this  sentence  was  delivered 
with  a  little  more  earnestness,  but  still  not 
much.  It  was  a  mere  matter  of  fact.  But  he 
delivered  it  with  a  little  more  earnestness;  so 
that  the  following  sentence,  which  was  to  be 
spoken  with  fervor,  might  not  be  too  abrupt. 
For  the  next  sentence  captured  that  audience. 


ST.  PAUL  :  ORATOR  AND  MISSIONARY 

Whom  therefore  ye  ignorantly  worship,  Him  declare 
I  unto  you. 

This  was  not  shouted,  we  know  very  well; 
but  we  also  know  that  it  was  uttered  with  an 
earnestness  and  a  physical  and  nervous  power 
which  was  all  the  more  overwhelming  because 
not  violent.  In  three  sentences  he  had  caught 
their  attention,  challenged  their  pride,  illus- 
trated it,  and  reached  the  climax  of  his  exor- 
dium. 

To  describe  the  remainder  of  this  oration 
would  be  merely  to  repeat  it.  It  is  the  shortest 
important  speech  ever  made,  excepting  only 
Lincoln's  undying  Gettysburg  address.  In  less 
than  one  hundred  and  fifty  words  he  put  the 
argument  for  and  assertion  of  the  living  God, 
of  salvation  and  of  the  resurrection  of  the  dead. 
And  in  doing  this  he  even  included  a  quotation 
from  the  Greek  poets.  It  is  all  very  simple, 
powerful,  convincing. 

When  he  had  closed,  some  mocked.  But 
others  said,  "We  will  hear  thee  again  on  this 
matter."    So  Paul  accomplished  what  he  came 

89 


THE  BIBLE  AS  GOOD  READING 

to  Athens  to  do.  He  had  planted  the  seed.  He 
had  aroused  interest.  He  had  spoken  words 
that  his  hearers  could  never  forget — words  that 
would  be  in  their  minds  when  they  went  to 
rest,  and  in  their  hearts  when,  awakening,  they 
arose  from  their  couches. 

I  recommend  you  to  read,  just  as  a  matter 
of  entertainment,  the  whole  story  of  Saul's  con- 
version and,  as  the  renamed  Paul,  of  his  travels, 
adventures  and  final  end.  And  if  in  the  search 
for  "good  reading"  you  want  a  little  very  solid, 
very  sensible  and  very  beautiful  ethics — phil- 
osophy that  passes  that  of  Emerson,  both  in 
its  charm  and  in  its  truthfulness  (and  that  is 
saying  a  good  deal) — then  read  the  twelfth  of 
Romans. 


90 


X.  Conclusion. 

This  little  book  draws  rapidly  to  a  close  and 
yet  I  have  said  almost  nothing  about  the 
Saviour.  Somehow  or  other  I  couldn't  bring 
myself  to  it.  The  story  of  our  Lord,  as  a 
mere  matter  of  fascinating  reading  is  above  the 
charm  of  any  narrative  you  will  find.  His 
divinity  aside,  the  practical  wisdom  of  his  say- 
ings exceeds  those  of  Solomon.  But  what  he 
did,  what  he  lived  and  what  he  said  cannot  be 
retold  with  an  infinitesimal  part  of  the  enter- 
tainment which  the  gospels  themselves  give. 
That  is  true,  of  course,  of  the  whole  Bible — 
true  of  Moses,  of  Joshua  and  David  and  the 
rest — but  with  the  Master,  somehow,  "it's  dif- 
ferent." 

I  never  read  any  essay  upon  our  Lord  but 
with  a  certain  kind  of  repulsion.  He  needs  no 
interpreter;     comment    and    commentary    on 

91 


THE  BIBLE  AS  GOOD  READING 

Him  seem  sacrilege — of  course,  such  a  view  is 
undoubtedly  unreasonable  and  unintelligent, 
but  I  just  feel  that  way  about  it.  The  only 
worth-while  study  of  our  Redeemer  is  that  of 
Renan,  and  he,  as  everybody  knows,  was  an  in- 
fidel and  tries  to  prove  the  Saviour  no  Re- 
deemer at  all.  But  you,  reader,  you  read  the 
life  and  words  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth  as  given  in 
the  gospels — just  as  you  read  them  for  your- 
self. That's  all  I  suggest.  And,  take  my  word 
for  it,  you'll  not  find  them  dull. 

I  think  that  we  Americans  are  falling  into 
the  same  trouble  that  the  men  of  Athens  had 
fallen  into  at  the  time  of  Paul's  immortal  ora- 
tion on  Mars'  Hill.  The  men  of  Athens  were 
continually  looking  for  "something  new" — as 
we  are  told,  the  Athenians  and  the  strangers 
there  spent  their  time  in  nothing  but  telling 
or  hearing  some  new  thing. 

But  the  Bible  is  full  of  the  most  extraor- 
dinary experiences  that  few  people  know  any- 
thing about.  They  are  tucked  away  here  and 
there  throughout  this  astonishing  volume.    As 

99 


CONCLUSION 

I  have  said  before,  they  are  of  every  kind,  too. 
Incidents  of  love  of  the  most  passionate  and 
yet  the  tenderest  and  the  most  self-sacrificing 
kind;  incidents  of  anger  that  set  our  blood  on 
fire  even  in  the  reading  of  them;  incidents 
of  the  blacker  passions  rioting  unrestrained, 
wanton  and  desperate;  incidents  of  craft  and 
cunning  more  subtle  than  those  told  by  Conan 
Doyle  in  his  Sherlock  Holmes,  or  by  that  mas- 
ter of  all  modern  writers  of  plot  and  intrigue, 
Edgar  Allan  Poe. 

Perhaps  the  most  engaging  as  well  as  most 
surprising  of  all  achievements  of  Bible  char- 
acters is  the  work  of  the  world's  greatest  law- 
giver, Moses.  You  shall  find  that  it  is  almost 
inconceivable  that  any  man  should  rise  among 
a  people  so  oppressed  as  the  Hebrews  had  been 
in  Egypt — and  so  savage  as  they  became  after 
the  Exodus — who  could  write  statutes  of  such 
practical  wisdom,  such  depth  and  forethought 
as  are  the  laws  of  Moses. 

I  have  advised  every  law  student  who  has 
ever  consulted  me  to  study  the  laws  of  Moses 

93 


THE  BIBLE  AS  GOOD  READING 

before  he  begins  his  Blackstone,  and  keep  on 
studying  the  laws  of  Moses  after  he  has  com- 
pleted his  law  course.  And  then  keep  on  study- 
ing the  laws  of  Moses  all  during  his  practice. 
And,  best  of  all,  these  ordinances  of  the  ancient 
Hebrews  are  not  a  bit  heavy  and  musty  as  are 
most  law  books.  They  are  bright,  keen,  con- 
densed and  to  the  point.  In  short,  they  are 
"good  reading." 

The  Bible  is  the  most  quotable  book  in  all 
literature.  You  may  take  Shakespeare  and 
Dante  together,  take  Milton  and  Horace,  put 
in  the  Koran  and  Confucius,  and  then  boil 
them  all  down,  and  the  quotable  things  in  all 
of  them  put  together  are  but  a  fraction  of  the 
sayings  in  the  Bible  that  fasten  themselves  in 
your  mind. 

[the  end] 


94 


<^ 


1907 


THE  LIBRARY 
UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 

Santa  Barbara 


THIS  BOOK  IS  DUE  ON  THE  LAST  DATE 
STAMPED  BELOW. 


SOUTHERN  REGIONAL  LIBRARY  FACILITY 


A    000  995  236     7 


